The Feeling: Wicked Game
by SarahsOblivion
Summary: Book 2 - Katniss and Peeta have been through what they thought was the worst year of their life. But what happens when they both end up in the games and their love is tested beyond extremes. Will their love survive it all or could this be it for the Star-Crossed lovers forever.
1. Chapter 1

**So here it is! The sequel to I wanna know what love is. I really hope you like it as much as the last story. I know I enjoyed writing it.**

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 **1.**

I wake and the other side of the bed is cold. It was expected. Prim would have climbed in with my mother considering its reaping day today. She would have had a nightmare, I cant say I was any different, my dreams where full of nightmares last night. One where Prim was picked and so was Peeta and I had to choose between them on which one I wanted to come home. That was definitely the worst one of all. Of course the dream didnt last long enough for me to find out who survived.

The tatty old clock on the wall tells me that its 6:03am. I need to get up to get a good bit of hunting done before the reaping. As I pull myself over the other side of the bed, my eyes fall on the ball of limbs and hair that is my sister and my mother as they cradle eachother. I smile slightly at the sight but then my smiles fades when her ugly cat jumps up and worms his way into the middle. Then again, I might hate that cat and he might make my blood boil but he is good for one thing, he always cheers Prim up and when he dies she is going to be heartbroken.

I pull my clothes on before leaving the room as quickly as I can as to not wake them. On the table is a small bit of goats cheese that Prim must have left for me. My eyes flicker towards the spot on the table where bread usually sits in the morning but he must not have been round this morning. Its okay though I'll catch him later. Outside the morning air is cold as usual, even though its summer right now, the morning of the reaping always manages to be cold. I know that Gale will be out in the woods today I'm just hoping that I dont bump into him. But part of me is hoping that we do and we can put our differences aside for just today of all days.

It doesnt take long for me to slide under the fence and dissapear into the woods. My feet take me on the usual journey to mine and Gale's rock. If he is going to wait for me anywhere, he's going to wait there. But he isnt there, infact it doesnt look like anyone has been here, so I decide to wait for him.

An hour later, he hasnt shown up so I decide to get on with it. Why would he not show up? He might still be angry with him but he still needs to hunt for his family. Thats something that neither of us are able to stop doing. I guess he went in a different direction. Either way I carry on, I might be able to catch him before the reaping.

By the end of the moring, I have 4 squirrels, 2 rabbits, 3 grooslings and 2 fish from Gale's snares at the lake which I reset easily incase they catch something else. On my way back to the fence, I dont hear anything or find any clues of anyone else being in the woods this morning. Gale might not be one to leave tracks but he's also not one to leave turkeys around and there seems to be quite a lot around right now. So I shoot 2 on the way home. By now, my back is getting a little too heavy to carry but its worth it. I cant trade any of this today so I'll have to do it tomorrow and by then I'll have even more to trade.

I get back home around half 11. I only have half an hour to get ready before I need to set off towards the town square to see Peeta before the reaping starts. I hope he's alright and he's not freaking out or anything. I've never seen him on the morning of a reaping so I have no idea what he is like. He's probably just scared like the rest of us.

At home, Prim is sitting on the small sofa watching mum kill the fire thats probably been burning all morning. "I've laid something out for you Katniss." Mum says and I smile at her. "Its on your bed." She walks away into the kitchen with my game bag which she took off me and I sit beside Prim.

"You okay?" I ask her, even though I already know the answer. She smiles weakly at me and I pull her in for a hug. "Its gonna be alright Prim, your names only in there once, they're not gonna pick you.

She nods, unconvinced. I deicde to leave her to it when Buttercup jumps up and I go to get ready. Considering that I only have half an hour, I forget about any attempts to have a bath and I just wash all the dirt from my finger nails and my face. The dress that my mother has laid out for me must be from her apothecary days, its old but still really nice, its a light blue colour. I had planned to wear Madge's dress that she gave me for the Mellarks dinner but I cant upset my mum today by wearing a dress that isnt the one she picked out. So I put on my mothers dress and allow her to braid my hair when we get downstairs, the girl staring back at me in the mirror does not look like me.

Afterwards, I find myself sitting with Prim in my arms until my mother comes into the rooms holding her coat. "Shall we get going?" She asks. I look at the clock, its 12:13pm. Prim pulls herself to her feet and I take her hand as we follow mum out the door and into the seam. Almost everywhere, kids are putting their finishing touches to their posh clothes and their mothers are saying goodbye to them as most fathers would be down in the mines already.

I have to look away at them all. Any one of the kids that I have known for years could be gone forever today. Nobody in District 12 ever survives the games, the last one was Haymitch and that was 25 years ago and everyone has pretty much given up hope that we will get a new victor anytime soon. If you are called at the reaping then its pretty much a death sentence.

In the town square, kids have already started going in and I feel Prim's hand tighten in my own, causing me to look at her, the tears streaming down her face. Infact I'm looking at her for that long that I bump straight into someone, almost going flying. When I look up to apologise, Gale is standing there. "Hi." I mumble and he watches me. I turn to leave, not having ny idea what to say to my best friend but he grabs my arm so I push Prim off with my mother, watching them walk to the Bakery then I turn to Gale. "What?" I ask, a little harshly.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry." His hold on my arm dissapears as his hand drops and I cross them over my chest. "Please forgive me." I want to stay mad at him but I cant so I throw my arms around him and hold him tight, my feet almost leaving the floor. "Good luck today Catnip."

I smile into his shoulder, I've missed him calling me that so much even if I do hate the name. "You too Gale." Thats when he pulls away. "You seen Delly yet?"

"No, I'm waiting for her. She shouldnt be long now." I nod.

"Well I've got to go." I tell him, noticing Peeta holding the Bakery door open for me. "I'll see you later." He gives me another hug and I turn and run towards the Bakery, towards Peeta.

Inside the Bakery, everything seems different. The very air around me is swimming with depression. Everyone else must be in the back because Peeta is the only one here. He looks terrible, as if he had no sleep last night at all which makes sense. I didnt sleep much either. "Hi." He mumbles to me with a small smile on his face. "You alright?" The door clicks shut, showing that he locked it before he shut it and then he takes me into his arms. "Of course you're not."

I find myself laughing because why would anyone be alright on Reaping day? I melt into Peeta's chest, my place, the place I fit, right here, in his arms. "I'm scared for Prim." I say to him and I hear him let out a breathe.

"I know. Me too." He replies.

"Guys, you coming through?" I hear someone say from the door and I turn to see Mum. I nod, taking Peeta's hand. She dissapears from the doorway and we follow her through.

In the sitting room, everyone is staring around, taking in every bit of eachother faces before the reaping today. Everyone but Mrs Mellark who I think I already saw sitting outside waiting for it to start, probably avoiding her sons. Masan is sitting on the sofa across from Rye, just looking at him. Its his last reaping today and I can tell he is a little excited but really scared about it like we all are. Sarah is here, clutching to his arm, crying slightly. Her sister must be at home or outside. Prim is sitting beside Masan and Leaven ringing her hands together and as soon as she sees me, she wraps her arms around my waist. "I'm so scared Katniss." She mumbles into my torso. I nod and feel myself leaning down to talk to her. "What if I'm picked?"

I take her by the shoulders and look deep into her tear filled eyes, trying to stop myself from crying as I look at her. "Its your first year Prim, your names only in there once, they're not gonna pick you." I say but I can feel myself loosing hope and when she wraps her arms around me again, I look toward Peeta with tears in my eyes. He nods in understanding and I smile slightly. Atleast I have him here with me.

Prim pulls away from me and latches onto mum, sitting beside her on the sofa, so I move to Peeta and bury my face in his shirt so no-one can see me crying. "Its gonna be alright." Peeta says to the room and I look up at him, forgetting about the tears on my face. "Tonight, everyone in this room will be dining together no matter what." He says but the looks on everyones faces says different. "Good luck Rye." He says to his brother. "You too Sarah."

"Good luck bro. Katniss, good luck." Rye says to us both. "Prim, you will be fine dont worry." Prim smiles at him.

I'm about to give everyone good lucks but am stopped by the sound of a really loud horn outside, signalling everyone is to go to the town square. We all look at eachother and the first person to stand up is Rye, pulling Sarah along with him. "Come on guys lets get this over with." He says. Prim stands up and grabs my hand, my other one in Peetas. We walk out together, as one, as a family.

Outside the town is full of scared children and parents. "Here is where we say goodbye." Masan says, standing beside my mother and Leaven. "Good luck guys." He hugs each of us in turn and so doesn Leaven then they dissapear off into the crowd to find a place to watch.

"Oh my sisters there, I'll see you later." Sarah says, peeling herself off Rye and kissing him quickly before running off to see her sister.

I turn to my mother and smile at her. "I'll see you tonight for dinner." I say and she smiles back, giving me and Prim a quick hug before joining Masan and Leaven who are stood next to a forever sour looking Mrs Mellark.

After we have all signed in, we walk towards the roped off area. Rye gives us both a smile before walking towards his sector where I spot Gale smiling at me. Peeta is by my side, holding my hand. "I'll see you later okay, I promise." He says, kissing me.

"Peeta, you have to promise me that you wont volunteer to go in with me." I say and he looks reluctant to agree but eventually he promises. "And I wont volunteer to go in for you." He nods and smiles. "I love you."

"I love you too." Then he's gone. Prim looks at me.

I smile at her. "Right, you go down there with the little kids I'll find you after okay?" She nods and hugs me before leaving. And just like that I'm alone and walking towards my own sector where I actually end up stood next to Delly.

As soon as I stand still, the mayor appears on the stage, giving his normal speech about the history of Panem. He reads out the list of past victors and its probably the shortest one throughout the whole of Panem with only 2 people on it. Thats when Haymitch appears, drunk as usual. I dont blame him though. He gives us a little wave and sits down next to Effie Trinket, then for some odd reason, he tries to hug her, which makes her look really scared. I cant help but laugh. My eyes find Peeta and he's laughing too. He doesnt have a bottle in his hands but you can tell he hasnt long since had one.

After the mayor has done speaking, Effie Trinket steps up to the microphone, straightening out her wig after what Haymitch did. "Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favour." She says, looking a little confused. You can tell she doesnt want to be here. She's probably only doing this for a while until she gets promoted to a bigger, better district where you dont get attacked by drunk men. She tries to say something more but instead she turns our atention to the screen where the video starts. I look towards Gale and I can see him mouthing the words that everyone knows. I smile at the memory of him always doing that to me. I wish I could look at Prim but I cant see her through this many people, especially with how small she is.

The short film finishes after about 5 minutes and Effie turns to the microphone again, her wig relatively straight. "Ladies first." You can hear the sound of her heals as she walks towards the bowl on her left. Around me I can hear a lot of girls hold their breathe.

When she is back at the microphone I close my eyes. Delly's hand brushes up against mine and I feel like giving her just a little bit of comfort and grabbing her hand but I dont because I cant think about anything else but Effie's voice and the name that is going to come out her mouth.

Then a name is called and Delly grabs my hand. My eyes open and focus on the floor, could it possibly be? Is she actually telling the truth. Because its not me, its the one name I never wanted to hear called. Its Primrose Everdeen. I honestly feel like I'm gonna throw up everything in my stomach.

I feel as if all the air has left my body as I see a small blonde near the front, begin to move. Thats when fear spreads throughout me and I look towards Peeta. His eyes are on me. The fear is visible in his eyes as he must know what I'm gonna do. I cant let my little sister go into the games. I just cant. I take a breathe and nod at Peeta, trying to hold in the tears so that the Capitol dont see my cry, dont see how weak I can be at times. "Goodbye Delly." I mumble and let go of her iron grip on my hand, moving towards the middle of the square as quickly as I can, feeling Peeta's eyes on me the entire time, giving me strength.

"Prim!" The cry comes out strangled and makes my throat hurt. Everyone at the end of the row falls backwards as I barge my way through to get to my little sister. A peacekeeper tries to stop me but I carry on shouting. "I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!" The peacekeeper lets go of me and I lunge forward towards Prim just as she tries to move up the steps. "Prim, go find mum!" I shout as she latches on to me.

Thats when she starts screaming. "No!"

"Prim go find mum, I know, I'm so sorry." I mumble, trying not to cry. I'm trying to push her away, to get her off me so I can take my rightful place at the top of the steps. Then suddenly, she's lifted into the air. I turn around to tell whatever Peacekeeper it is to let her go. Instead I find Gale.

He smiles sadly. "Up you go Catnip." He gives me a slightly nudge and hoists Prim over his shoulders, who is still screaming hysterically. I stand there, not wanting to move.

"Lovely." I hear Effie Trinket says to me. I turn to see a lot of confusion on the stage. "But I believe there is a small matter of introducing the reaping winner and then asking for volunteers..." She trails off.

Thats when the mayo speaks up. "What does it matter?" He looks pained. Sad even. "What does it matter, let her come forward." Then I begin moving up the steps. She takes my hand at the top and leads me over to the microphone.

The square is as quiet as it was before. "Well bravo!" Effie chimes. "Thats the spirit. District 12' very first volunteer, whats your name?" She asks, moving the microphone over to me.

"Katniss Everdeen." I choke. I'm finding it very hard not to cry right now.

"Well, I bet my buttons that was your sister?" She asks.

"Yes." I mumble, surprised that anyone would be able to catch it.

"Well, everyone lets give her a hand." Effie begins to clap but no-one joins in so she stops. Instead everyone sticks the first three fingers on their left hand in the air. Its a very old District 12 saying. It means thanks, it means admiration, it means goodbye to someone you love. Now I'm really in danger of crying.

Everything is silent for a second. "Now, for the boys." She says, leaving my side and walking to the bowl on her right. All I can think is not Peeta, not Gale, not Peeta, not Gale. And its not either of them. Its someone worse. Someone who I cant go into the games with. My legs wobble at the thought. "Eric Stratser." My eyes grow wild and my hands start to shake. He bounds through the 18 year old section, almost knocking Rye over who gives him a dirty look. Thats when I look at Peeta as an attempt to distract myself but it doesnt work when I see the look on his face. He's going to do something stupid and I starts shaking my head at him.

Erics by my side now and I can feel myself about to collapse. "Now, any volunteers." Thats when the shaking gets really bad and for one specific reason. Peeta's hand shoots straight up in the air.

"I do! I volunteer to go in." He shouts so that everyone can hear him and I hear a few gasps. One of them from my own mouth. I know I cant say anything so there is no use in trying. He pretty much runs towards the stage, to me. On the stage, he stands on the other side of Effie and tries to look strong but you can tell he's close to crying. Effie asks him his name and he says it with confidence.

Effie speaks again just as Eric is being directed to the crowd at the back off the square where I see my mother standing beside Gale and Prim, all of them looking sad. "Well there you have it, the tributes from District 12. Shake hands you two." She moves aside and I step up to Peeta, instead of shaking his hand I pull him towards me for a hug, surprising Effie and just about everyone. Most of them know that we are dating but they wouldnt expect me to show the Capitol that I love him. Now they are going to use him against me and thats a given.

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 **Please leave me a review to let know what you thought of the first chapter.**


	2. Chapter 2

**2.**

My mind is exploding right now about Peeta. I had a feeling something bad was going to happen today but I didnt expect this. My sister almost went into the games, I almost went into the games with the person that scared me the most, If nobody had volunteered my baby sister would have gone into the games with Eric of all people and now its the worst thing of all, I'm going in with Peeta. After this the only way that we can be together is if we both die, which at the moment seems like the better option.

A sofa, thats the only thing I get in my goodbye room, and something tells me that Peeta's is probably the same. I find myself at the fogged out window, looking at the small glimpses of trees outside, my knuckles turning white from my grip on the small bit of wood that makes the windowsill. Then a picture forms in my head of me standing at my bathroom window every morning, watching Prim feed Lady early in the morning. The thought makes me want to cry but I cant, not today, not infront of anyone.

Suddenly the door opens behind me and my head turns away from the window and away from the memory that will never again be a reality. "You have 5 minutes." I hear someone say before someone flies at me and my face is covered in blonde hair. I cant let myself enjoy it though because I cant let it ditract me from what I need to do. So I push her away, ignoring the hurt on her face and hold her at arms length. "Prim listen to me, we dont have much time." I say and she nods through the tears. "Dont take Tesserae, it isnt worth putting your name in more times. Gale will bring you game and you can sell cheese from your goat." The last bit comes out squeeky as I feel a single tear fall from my eyes.

"But you'll come back right Katniss, maybe you can both come back?" She asks even though she knows the truth. But then again in these sitations, people dont listen to the truth.

"I think we both know that cant happen Prim." I say, feeling my head duck towards the floor, I cant look at her and tell her that I might not be coming back. Of course I'm gonna try but at then end of the day I cant come back to this place without Peeta. "I'm sorry Prim." I dont need to say anymore because she already knows. So I turn to my mother instead. "You cant tune out again. I wont be there anymore, you're all she has." I say, holding her at arms length.

"I wont." She whispers, brushing it off like its nothing but infact this is everything. Everything I ever lived for.

"No you cant." Thats when the tears start falling from my eyes, the realisation that this will be the last time that I ever talk to my mother and after how badly I've treated her. I pull her into my arms and hold her tight because she might have been ignoring us since my father died but this past year she has really been making an effort and she really help me get through everything that happened. "Dont cry. I love you. Look after Peeta when he gets back." I whisper so that Prim doesnt hear. I expect her to say something, instead she just nods because at the end of everything she is the only person that would know what he is going through.

Thats when the peacekeeper appears again, dragging them out. "I love you. I promise Prim." I'm not sure what I'm promising her or wether I'm gonna keep that Promise but it seems like a good thing to say.

I drag myself over to the sofa whilst I cry and drop down onto it, my head in my hands. The door opens again but I dont look up to see who it is, that is until I hear a voice, a voice I havent heard since I was a kid. The last time I saw her would have been 7 years ago. "Now, I dont want any crying at our big reunion." I can tell by the sound of her voice that she is crying too.

Just seeing her makes me cry even more. "Eva?" I whisper and within seconds we are hugging. "I am so glad you came." I say into her shoulder. She is still slightly taller than me but I'm catching up really quickly. When we where younger she was a lot taller than me.

"I couldnt let you go to the games without telling you that I love you now could I?" She says with a small laugh. "I am so sorry that I never came to saw you over the years. They didnt let me out before I was 16 and after that I spent too much time trying to find a job." I nod in understanding. "So whats going on with you and Peeta Mellark? Yes I know him."

I smile as I pull away. "We have been together since my birthday. He is so amazing." Then she nods.

"And what about you and that Eric guy? You looked pretty terrified when he was picked." She asks.

"We have a very bad history. I cant say, its too bad. You went to school with him, you know what he's like."

She nods. "Anyway, I think that there is something you should know that I'm pretty sure you havent been told because he seems to always forget to make it clear to people. Infact I dont even think he knows you know me." My eyebros crease. "I just needed you to know. But Leaven Mellark and I have been dating for 4 years." Now that I was not expecting. "I'm sorry you didnt know but I could never sneak away long enough to come to the bakery to tell you and I knew he wouldnt."

Then something pops into my head, something that Peeta told me once about Lev. "Wait where you the girl that he had in his room once and you got kicked out by his mother?" I ask with a small laugh.

By her laugh, I can tell it was her. "Yeh that was me. Her mother is such a bitch, she hasnt hurt you has she?"

"Actually I stood in the way once and you see this scar?" I ask her, pointing to a small one on my wrist. She nods. "She hit me with a rolling pin when I got inbetween her and Peeta. She broke his wrist. That was only over a week ago. Peeta still has the bandage on his wrist."

"Yeh I saw that at the reaping, what did-" Then the peacekeeper arrives and I give her one last hug before she dissapears out the door.

I'm alone now, thinking about my ex-bestfriend who I havent seen since we where kids and how she actually came to see me before I am sent to my death. I never thought she would come and see me if that happened. I know that she is in the reaping every year, well this year was her last but I've looked for her every year, the people at the orphanage must cart them in and then straight back out because I think I saw her in the 15 year old girl pen 3 years ago but I didnt see her afterwards. Neither did I see the woman who owns the orphanage before or after the reaping.

The door opens behind me, pulling me out of my thoughts and Gale and Delly walk in. Differences aside, I walk straight into his open arms. It feels so good to have him near me again. That is until he roughly pushes me away. "Katniss, you can win this thing!" He says and I feel myself lose any hope that I ever had about these games.

"No, Not without Peeta." I say, glancing at Delly who stands motionless near the door. She's crying which probably means she just came from Peeta. "If anyone comes home, its him. If he dies, I die too."

He still holds me by the shoulders, stopping me from moving. "Katniss, please. You have to try, your family need you... I need you..." His voice falters slightly but I just stare at him unconvinced. "Look, I know what its like to love someone that much and I completely understand where you are coming from but you cant leave everyone that needs you behind just for one person."

Still I just stare at him. And so he just stares at me. So I decide to talk. "I'm not strong enough Gale. I'll be my mother if I ever came back." I whisper, my eyes falling to the floor.

"You are stronger than your mother, you know that." I'm about to say something back but Delly sort of pushes him aside because we all know that their time with me is almost up.

She smiles at me, stroking my right arm. "I know I havent known you for that long but I do know everything about you and I know that Peeta loves you so very much and would in no way allow himself to come back from these Games alone. There's only one winner and I want you to promise me that if Peeta... dies, that you'll come back to us no matter what? He wouldnt want you throwing your life away just because he's gone."

I find myself nodding. "I promise Delly." I know its a lie because Peeta is not going to die, not on my watch. If he does, there is no way I would ever be able to set foot in this district again.

The peacekeeper arrives and takes them away, replacing them almost immediately with Madge Undersee. Its not much of a conversation, she hands me a pin, a Mockingjay to be more precise, one she said that her mothers sister used to wear, whoever she is. My District Token. Then she is gone and I'm left alone for a couple of minutes. I dont think there is anyone left I want to see other than the Mellarks, if they are up to it after seeing Peeta. I would understand if they wherent, I just want to say goodbye.

Next thing I know, the door flies open and I'm being grabbed by someone, someone blonde. When my eyes have truly focused I see Rye. "Katniss! I am so sorry, you dont know how sorry I am! I was going to volunteer, I swear I was. When I saw Eric walk up there, I knew he couldnt go into the games with you and I had to stop him but then Peeta volunteered and everything fell apart. I couldnt volunteer for Peeta, I made a promise, a promise Katniss, one between brothers, I couldnt break it. 'Dont volunteer for me' he said and I knew that he would have never forgiven me but I should have done. I could have died and you could have come home and lived with Peeta."

His eyes look crazed and this is the first time I notice Masan and Leaven standing near the door, watching with tears in their eyes, obviously from seeing Peeta. "Rye, no, its fine. I'm glad you didnt volunteer. Dont worry, you will get your brother back." Somehow the thought of him getting Peeta back makes him cry more.

"But what about you?" He asks. I've never seen him like this. Rye is the district joker, the last person you would ever expect to cry.

"There is only one winner Rye, and its gonna be Peeta. I'm gonna make sure of it." He drops his hold on me and falls onto the sofa behind me.

Leaven steps forward. "Katniss, I'm not stupid enough to try and change your mind because I know I cant but thank you for everything you have done for us this past year. You saved all of our lives and I'll never get to repay you for that." He doesnt say anything else and just hugs me.

Masan on the other hand, doesnt say a word, just wraps me up in his arms that remind me so much of Peeta's. I dont think Mrs Mellark realises just how lucky she is. Infact she definitely doesnt considering Peeta is going into the games with a broken wrist because of her.

When they leave, nobody else comes to see me. So instead I imagine how Peeta is dealing with this whole situation, If I know him as well as I think I do, he's probably freaking out and circling the room, running his hands through his hair, like he always does when he is worried.

(PEETAS POV)

I'm left alone in a room by the peacekeeper that escorted me here. The sound of birds chirping is drifting in through the thin, broken glass of the window. it actually relaxes me. If I close my eyes I can imagine that I'm just sitting in the woods with Katniss. Of course that picture is shattered by a crazed lunatic flying out the tree line ready to kill us. Just like all my nightmares recently, looks like they are actually coming true.

I'm surprised to find that my first visitor is my mother, by herself. "I'm not here to say goodbye or beg you to forgive me if thats what youre thinking. I came because I was forced by your father... I'll never understand that man."

"Then why are you here?" I ask harshly. "How could you possibly bring me any lower?"

She laughs slightly. "I came to give you a bit of a pick me up actually." My eyes narrow. "It seems that District 12 might finally have a winner." Could she really be giving me a compliment. "She's a survivor that one." I guess not.

"Well I guess you can tell her yourself when she wins the games." I say because she will, I will make sure of it.

Mum nods. "I will. Goodbye Peeta." Her voice is that cold that it brings me shivers. I dont understand how anyone can be so horrible. Not to her own child. When she leaves, I find myself crying. I was trying to hold it in for Katniss' sake but who cared anymore, there isnt anyone else here, just me, all alone.

When the rest of my family come through, I'm a wreck, I can only imagine how Katniss dealt with seeing Prim for the last time. "Peet..." Someone whispers and I'm embraced by my father, the arms of the man who comforted me so many times in the past because of mother. The only ones I felt right in, until Katniss came along. "I am so sorry that this happened."

I ignore his comment and push him away, I have things to say before they leave. "Dad, listen, you have to promise me one last thing, promise me that you wont let Prim starve, if by any chance that I fail to keep Katniss alive, someone needs to keep her sister alive. Her mum too."

He nods with tears in his eyes. "I promise son."

When dad moves aside, I catch sight of Rye who is strangely enough, crying. I have only ever seen him cry once when I was a kid and that was the first time mum ever hit him. He hasnt cried infront of me since, so this is new territory for me. "I'll miss you bro. All arguing and teasing aside, you where the best friend I ever had." He gives me a quick one armed hug and stands beside me.

"Peet, I know you dont plan on coming home but please promise me that you will try. I might not have had much to do with you when we where growing up, me being a lot older than you but you are still my baby brother and we need you here."

I want to say that I promise but I cant lie to him the last time I will ever see him. "Lev, you and I both know that I'm not coming back without Katniss and considering there is only one winner, I'm not coming back at all. If she dies, I'll have nothing." I tell him.

"You have us Peet." Rye says from my side.

I nod in his direction. "I know and I love that I have you guys but do you really think I'm gonna care much about anything if I came back without her? I wouldnt even be the same person."

"We know bro, its okay." Lev says and hugs me. This isnt a normal hug though, its different, he's saying goodbye. He knows I'm not coming back. "I'll see you eventually, in a better place."

"Yeh, just hopefully not too soon." I smile and he smiles back. "I love you guys and I would never say that. Just remember that I'll always be there no matter what." They all nod and then get dragged out by a peacekeeper who has been stood on the other side of the door this whole time.

I cant believe I just said goodbye to my family for the final time because there is no way that I am coming home, personally I think I could probably win the games if I tried but trying is out of the question now that Katniss is going in. She will be coming out and I will do everything in my power to make sure that happens. Between the two of us I'm sure we can make that happen.

"Peeta?" I dont hear them come in but someone is in the room. I turn around and see Delly and Gale standing there. I'm surprised that Gale came.

"Delly." I say and she flies into my arms. "Thank you for coming." I say to her, burying my face into her hair.

When she pulls away she doesnt have time to talk as Gale speaks up. "Peeta, listen to me, we've just been with Katniss, she's refusing to come home. She says that if you die then she's gonna die too and you cant let that happen, she's needed here. Her family, me." He looks like he's gonna cry but I know that Gale would never cry, not even in this situation. Not when there are people to see atleast.

I nod in understanding. "Trust me Gale, I will not allow her to die. She means more to me than anything in this world." I say.

"Yeh, I completely understand that but Katniss is-" I cut him off, knowing what he's going to say.

"- Stubborn I know." We both laugh about it. "You have to promise me when she comes back that you will look after her, I know she will be broken because of the games and because of me and she's going to need you. She loves you so much Gale and dont forget you. She's been different whilst she hasnt been talking to you, depressed."

He smiles at me. "I'll look after her. You can trust me with that. I'll tie her up and force her to smile if I have to." He says, causing us both to laugh.

"Thank you Gale. That means a lot." I give him a quick awkward hug with a small pat on the back and he returns it which makes me smile slightly. Of course me and Gale would put our differences aside when I'm about to die. "This doesnt mean I like you Hawthorne." I say with a small smile.

"I wouldnt dream of it Mellark." He smiles at me and gives me a small nod of appreciation and then leaves.

I'm fully crying when my last visitors show up. Evie and Prim. I try to wipe away my tears but then I see Prim crying and I know just how Katniss must be feeling. Little Primrose, the little girl who is never going to get on with her life if Katniss dies in that arena. She walks over almost immediately and hugs me. She not tall enough for me to hug properly so I end up picking her up off the ground and hugging her. "Its gonna be okay Prim." I say even though nothing is ever going to be okay again.

"Just promise me that you will look after you both and that atleast one of you will come back?" She asks into my shoulder.

"I promise Prim." I reply. She lets go and stands infront of me. "You will get Katniss back."

That seems to shock her. "But what about you?"

"Well it looks like this is goodbye." I reply. Everyone knows that if Katniss comes home then I wont be. I hate to say goodbye to Prim but I have to "I'm sorry."

She throws her arms around my middle again and more tears fall from my eyes. "I love you Peeta." She says and I swear I feel my heart stop momentarily. I never expected them words to come out of Prims mouth. I didnt even know she felt so stronger about me. I know I do about her, she feels like the little sister that I always wanted.

"And I love you too Primrose." I say to her and I see her smile.

When she moves aside I get to talk to Evie. "I dont have much to say Peeta because I honestly dont know what I can say but just remember that whatever goes on at your house, you will still have a mother that cares for you and loves you, all you have to do is come round." She smiles at me and I wrap my arms around her shoulders. I always knew that she would be so kind to me but I never expected her to say anything like that.

"Thank you so much." I say, tears leaving my eyes.

When they leave, I'm alone for about 10 minutes before someone comes in and takes me out. I can see Katniss behind me walking side by side with a peacekeeper. She's obviously been crying a lot. Whilst we are walking towards the back door, we walk past a small waiting area that holds everyone. My family, Katniss's, Madge, Sarah, Delly and Gale. I give them all one last smile and me and Katniss are guided out the back door and into a car where none other than Effie Trinket waits for us. There I take Katniss into my arms and hope for the best that she will be back in this car in a month.

* * *

 **So Katniss saw her old friend. I wanted to bring her in eventually considering I had mentioned her in the first story but I promise you that she will be in it again, not giving anything away on who wins the games because you will be very surprised. Get ready for something very different than the original story. Please leave me a review and let me know what you thought about it?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

My grip on Peeta's hand has just got tighter and tighter since we got in the car. The train infront of us looks amazing. I've seen a lot of trains come into the train station but I have never had a chance to see the Tribute train. Hardly anyone gets to see it. Me and Peeta get to see it this year and no one else does.

My feet are planted into the ground, momentarily stunned. That is until Effie speaks, beckoning us forward to get on the train. Peeta pulls on my hand and I follow him, forgetting about all the cameras by my left. As soon as the doors on the train shut behind us, I let go of Peeta's hand. I might not want to do it but I'm still annoyed that he volunteered. I could have gone in with Eric and beat him and come home, he would be gone from our lives forever and me and Peeta would be free to live our lives but instead one of us or both of us is going to die. I volunteered because I had to, he volunteered so that I wouldnt go into the arena with a mad man even though I could have just stayed away from him.

"Katniss, you need to move." Peeta says, nudging me forward. I'm stood frozen in the doorway to a room that is packed full of elegant food. "Come on." Effie is already standing in the middle of the room waiting for us but I'm blocking Peeta's path so I move forward and drag my legs over to one of the comfy looking chairs to the side. Peeta sits beside me and Effie sits infront of him.

I find myself looking out the window as Effie begins talking about how 'brilliant' it is that we where picked and how we can be 'happy for eachother that we get to take part in something as great as The Hunger Games' which earns her a snide comment off Peeta on how 'this wasnt supposed to happen' or something like that. I tune out the last of the conversation until she mentions Haymitch. "He's probably in the bar car." She says, jumping up to go and find him.

I had completely forgot about Haymitch. The one chance at our survival is probably drinking himself ill right now after what happened today. I know he likes to hide it but he cares about us. "Katniss?" Peeta asks through the silence of the room. "Are you going to talk to me?" I turn away from him and stare out the window again. "Look, I understand if you dont feel like talking but could you atleast explain to me why you wont even look at me?"

Thats when I decide to say something. "I cant believe you did that." I say, still facing the window. "I would have been fine."

He's silent for a second or two before speaking. "I think we both know you wouldnt have been fine. Who knows what he could have done to you in that arena. Anyway, you volunteered aswell."

The anger explodes from me at his last comment and I can feel more tears fall from my face. "I did it to save Prim! Just like you would have done! You didnt have to volunteer. I could have got him out of our lives forever and me and you could have done whatever we wanted when I got back but no!... You had to ruin everything by sticking your hand in the air!" I shout, realising now that I'm stood on my feet.

"I know that you did it to save Prim and I didnt just do it because of Eric, I did it to save you!" He shouts back, standing up to face me.

"You Promised me that you wouldnt volunteer for me. You just went back on a promise!" I shout.

"Because I love You and I cant watch you in there knowing that I cant do anything to help you!" His voice is louder than I have ever heard it and it scares me a little so instead of saying anything else, I wrap my arms around his middle and cry. "I'm sorry." He chokes, pulling me close and burying his face in my hair.

I hear the door open behind us and a voice speaks up before I even have chance to pull away from Peeta. "Congratulations." Someone familiar says. I look towards the door to see Haymitch there. "Looks like we are going to the Capitol together this year." I can tell by the red face and the croakiness of his voice that he was crying, however much he tried to hide it.

"Good to see you too Haymitch." Peeta says without even turning around.

Haymitch staggers over to the seat that Effie was sitting in but me and Peeta stay stood up. "I'm sorry. I cant believe this happened...Its gonna be hard with what just happened at the reaping."

"What do you mean?" I ask him, sitting down back in my seat whilst Peeta takes his.

"You two are going to be big targets. You both have something to lose and with Peeta's wrist still broken, he isnt as strong. Though I might be able to get something for the wrist to help. I'm not saying it will fix it but it will give you about a weeks worth of healing all in one so if we get it done tomorrow then you should be alright by the games but you're gonna have to train it up to get the strength back in it." Up until now I just felt like this whole thing was just a terrible nightmare but then Haymitch mentions the games and the tears flow from my eyes. This isnt a nightmare, its real and its happening and one of us here wont be here next time we are on this train.

As I cry, I expect Peeta's arms but instead I get Haymitch's. "Its alright, I'll what I can. We can find a way." Thats when I pull away as I realise the truth. I definitely wont be able to live in this world without Peeta and somehow I know that its the same the other way around. I would rather him die with me than go home and kill himself alone and scared.

I look to him, he's looking right back at me. "I dont want to come out of that arena." I say loudly enough for them both to hear. Haymitch looks startled and Peeta looks as if he is about to reject to that idea so I put my hand up to stop him. "I dont want either of us too." Then they both look confused. "I know that I would be able to live without you Peeta and I know you wouldnt either. I want to die with you and I want you to die with me and if thats selfish, I dont care, I dont want you to be alone when you die." Tears appear in Peeta's eyes and he jumps up to hug me.

"So, you're talking about a suicide mission?" Haymitch asks from behind Peeta, who's now blocking my view of Haymitch.

I move away from Peeta and turn to Haymitch. "Come on, we're from 12, we wherent going to win anyway. Now I'm going to bed, where is it?" I ask him, wanting to finish this conversation.

He hands sticks out towards the door that we came in when we first got here. "Out there, down the corridor, The first 2 doors are your room and Peeta's room. The recaps will be on again tomorrow morning, you can just watch them then." I nod and leave them both too it, going to my bedroom.

Its so elegant. Different than anything I have ever seen. Even Haymitch's house. His house is posh but this is amazing. Almost everything is silk. There is even a silk overlay on the walls. There is a small bathroom off to the left of the door I walked in and a huge window on one side, showing the trees as they fly back. My mouth hangs open at how amazing it is.

I dont have long to think about it as the door slides open behind me making me jump and Peeta walks in. I pull him into my arms and kiss him, just like I have been waiting to do since the reaping. When I pull away he smiles. "I figured you would want to watch the recaps so I thought that me and you could watch them in here, alone and I got Haymitch to order our dinner to your bedroom." I smile in thanks. There is no-one I want to be with right now other than Peeta.

And so that night, me and Peeta curl up under the covers of my bed and watch the recaps. I see lots of faces but hardly any of them make a lasting expression, except the boy and girl from 2. The girl, very small but still looks extremely lethal. She doesnt volunteer which is surprising for 2 and no-one tries to volunteer for her. The boy, Cato is a giant of a man, probably even taller than Gale. He does Volunteer. I can see that one being a very big threat, if not the person to kill me. Then District 11, A boy that is even bigger than Cato but looks like he keeps himself to himself. Then one tiny girl who brings a tear to my eye. Rue, she looks so terrified, as a 12 year old you would think that someone would have volunteered but no-one did and I find my heat aching for Prim.

Then District 12 appears and there is Effie being 'attacked' by Haymitch. They skip out the part with the video because they showed it before district 1. Then Prim's name is called and I volunteer. It shows Haymitc's face and he looks as if he's about to cry which I didnt know happened. After all the screaming from Prim, Eric is called and on screen my face drains of all colour. As he takes his place next to me with a smile on his face, Effie calls for Volunteers and the camera cuts to a hand sticking out of a crowd of boys and Peeta makes his way towards the stage. Then we hug and its over.

"Well it seems that we have a good selection of tributes this year." I hear claudius Templesmith say over the end of the video as it fades back into him and Caesar Flickerman.

"Indeed it does, and them tributes from 12. I think its going to be very interesting this year." Caesar says and then the screen goes black as Peete presses the button on the remote.

He laughs slightly and I can feel it rumble through his chest. "I dont know about you but I dont want to hear them talk about us. I just want to sleep." I nod in agreement and I fall further into the sheets, allowing the rumbling of the train floor to take me into sleep.

When I wake up in the morning, Peeta is still there, asleep next to me. It feels good to sleep next to him again. Especially given the circumstances. I move slowly as not to wake him. I dont know how long he was up last night but it was probably quite a while. I know that Peeta never sleeps when he is worried. I sleep if I need to and today I needed to because I havent slept in a while, not properly anyway.

Once I'm out the room and Peeta is still asleep, I make my way back towards the cart where I was yesterday, whatever it was called. I'm guessing someone will be in there, if not then I'm sure I'll find them eventually. I'm hoping that I'll find Haymitch as I really hate Effie. With my luck today though I'll find her and she will drill me about something that I couldnt care less about.

And I'm right, the first person I come across is Effie Trinket, sitting at the breakfast table, ignoring all the food and dabbing some kind of make-up on her nose. Until she notices me and then her hands fold neatly on the table and she smiles at me. "Come sit down dear. Have some breakfast." She says kindly. Regardless of how much I hate her, I am actually really hungry so my legs drag me forward and I fall into a chair across from Effie, picking up food from the different plates. "Before I go and find Haymitch, do you know where Mr Mellark is? I went to both of your bedrooms last night after the recaps and neither of you answered." She asks.

With a mouth full of food, I answer very calmly. "Yeh, we watched the re-caps in my room and then we fell asleep, he's currently still sleeping." Something in her face turns sour and somehow I know its not because I'm showing her all the food I'm eating which you can tell doesnt please her anyway.

"Thats really sweet Miss Everdeen but I dont think, at your age that you should be sleeping with-" I dont even have time to shout at her when a voice appears behind us.

I didnt even hear him come in but apparently he did. "I authorised it, I said it was fine." Haymitch says and Miss Effie Trinket loses her temper and walks out the room. "I love going against what she says." Haymitch howls, falling down into the chair, previously used by Effie.

"Do you think we should tell her?" I ask him. I'm not talking about telling her all of our secrets, just the fact that we all know eachother, if she hasnt figured it out already herself.

He shakes his head almost instantly, "She will figure it out eventually. She doesnt need to know just yet. You see Effie has always cared about the tributes however much she tries to deny it and if she found out that we all know eachother, I fear that some kind of 'team' speech would happen and then you would never get rid of her, trust me I never have and probably never will." He laughs slightly and I find myself smiling, still eating the food on my plate.

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 **Sorry I know its a very short chapter but I needed a filler chapter. The next one will be the tribute parade.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Here is the next chapter :) I hope you like it!**

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 **4**

"So what do we have today?" I ask Haymitch as we all sit around the table talking about what will happen in the Capitol. Peeta showed up about 10 minutes ago and considering that me and Haymitch already finished our breakfast then he decided to talk whilst Peeta ate.

Peeta looks up from his food, interested. "Just prepping. The prep teams are irritating but you will get through it" Haymitch replies.

"Ok what else do you need to talk about" I ask, not really wanting to talk about Capitol citizens.

He seems to know the answer straight away and its something I dont really know the answer too. "Your skills" How could you possibly talk about your own skills? Especially if you're one of the most selfless people in Panem, which is mostly people from 12 so I dont know how Haymitch ever gets anything out of his tributes to be honest.

I'm about to say that I dont have any skills but Peeta with a mouth full of food gets there before me. The crazy thing is that he would probably be able to take someone out quicker than I could so I decide to say something back. "Lies, of course you have skills." I say to him.

He ignores me and turns to Haymitch instead. "No I don't, but Katniss can shoot." This of course makes me slightly annoyed. He's down-grading himself and making me look better. Sometimes I would rather be from a different district because selfless people are hard to deal with a lot of the time. "I know she can I've seen the squirrels she took my dad." I smile thinking about his family and home altogether.

When I find them both looking at me, I say something. "Im alright" Is all that seems to come out.

Peeta has dropped his fork by now, trying to persuade both me and haymitch. "She's amazing" He beams and I just laugh.

"Peeta!"

"Katniss!" Ive got to stop myself from laughing when he mocks me. He sounds extremely funny trying to mimic my voice.

"So any other skills you two have other than bickering an shootin?" Haymitch asks, making silence fall over the room until I decide to give Peeta a bit of his own medicine, I mean Haymitch deserves to know what Peeta can do and if Peeta can talk about me like that then I certainly can talk about him like that.

"Peetas strong" I say, keeping my eyes focused on Haymitch, I dont really want to know what Peeta is doing right now, he's probably silently cursing me.

They both look at me for a second before Peeta says one word, "What?"

Keeping my eyes still on Haymitch I carry on talking. "He can throw a hundred pound sack of flour right over his head I've seen it."

"Well I'm not gonna kill anyone with a sack of flour" Peeta says and I can hear him getting angrier. I hate when he's angry but Haymitch needs to know this. "Not with this stupid wrist anyway." He motions towards his broken wrist, I'd completely forgotten about that.

I'm starting to loose my patience with him now. "No! But you might have a better chance of winning if someone comes at you with a knife-"

"I have no chance of winning!" He shout. "Non alright. Its true... Eeryone knows it." His face turns somewhat depressed and he jumps up and storms out the room, leaving me and Haymitch sitting there in silence.

"Well that was unexpected" Haymitch says. Now that I think about it Peeta doesn't normally act up that much. Its been a while since I've seen him that hopeless. Even then it would have been over something stupid. Or it would have been when his mother wasnt getting any better after the fire.

There is only one thing for it really. "I know, I'll talk to him later." I say the tears are about to come but I push them back.

"Right so what skills does he have and be truthful" Haymitch asks me, I turn to him and be as truthful as I can.

I think about everything I have ever been told or what I've seen and tell him. "He's strong, he can wrestle, he came in second in the school competition, rye came first but I think Peeta let him win." I smile at the memory of that day "I taught him to shoot but he isn't too good but he can shoot just not good aim, we also taught eachother how to use knifes with his strength and my good aim it just kind of worked." The smile is still on my face, thinking about all those days spent in the woods training and messing around.

Haymitch thinks for a minute. "Ok well we can work with that." Is all he says.

"Oh I also taught him to swim if that helps." I say remembering one last thing.

"I don't know if that helps because I don't know what the arena is but it could help" I guess he's right. For all we know the arena could be a lot of water with a couple little islands on.

"Peeta also taught me how to wrestle but I only got him off his feet once but I think I'd be able handle all the girls in this arena and some of the boys." That is probably the nicest thing I've ever said about myself.

"Ok that helpful anything else?" I shake my head and he nods. "Ok I don't want you to show any of your skills in the training room because we don't want the other tributes to know what you are good at, save your skills for the private session with the gamemakers."

"I don't want any of them to see me shoot anyway." If I showed them then they would know what I was good at and I definitely dont want that.

"Ok well you can do what you want until Peeta comes around then talk to him, because of the reaping everybody is expecting this couple who are in love not two people who argue all the time." I'm starting to rethink the reaping now, I really shouldnt have hugged him. Now I have weakness.

For the next couple of hours I find myself thinking about what would happen if Peeta died in that arena I don't think I'd be able to deal with life if I lost my boyfriend I would turn into my mother. This was the reason why I never wanted to love him in the first place, I knew something was going to happen. This is the worst possible thing that could have happened and it doesnt surprise me because after the last year, I've come to terms with the fact that I'm not a very lucky person.

"Katniss I'm sorry I overreacted" I hear behind me, mkaing me jump. I turn to see Peeta standing a couple feet from me watching me stare out the window.

I turn back away. "Peeta I don't want to talk about it" I say pulling my legs up onto the sofa next to me.

Peeta moves closer to me and picks up my legs and lays them over his lap. "Katniss please you know I'd never upset you." he rubs warmth back into my legs as if he knows I'm cold.

"Too late Peeta you already did, if you think I can live without you then you are mistaken." I pull my legs away from him, keeping my eyes anywhere but on him.

"Katniss I can't live without you either the thought scares me." He looks like he's about to cry and I cant help but slide my arms around his shoulders.

"Please don't cry please." I say and he buries his face in my shoulder. I wish I could just stay here forever and not have to worry about the stupid games.

"Only if you promise to talk to me again." He says.

"How could I not talk to you?" I say and he pulls away from my briefly just to pull me into him and gives me a long kiss.

We hear a cough from the door and pull away. Haymitch is standing there with a stupid grin on his face. "I see you guys made up." Sometimes I could actually just hit that man. I honestly dont think Effie would like my much if I did.

"Haymitch what do you want?" I ask him, a little too harshly. "We where in the middle of something."

"I thought you would like to know that we are here." Peeta seems to get excited and walks over to the small window to see the Capitol.

"It's huge, that's incredible" he says looking excited. What's to be excited about? "Come on Katniss. Come and see this!" I walk over but don't go infront of the window. We go through a tunnel and are plunged into darkness. When the light comes back I can hear screaming. Peeta starts waving. Capitol citizens.

He grabs my hand and pulls me to his side. The Capitol people seem to go Berzerk. I loop my arm around Peeta and he kisses me on the head. I see flashing lights clearly they saw the reaping, this really wont be good for the games but I dont think they show this footage to the other tributes so we are good at the moment.

When we get off the train we are swarmed by cameras. Peeta takes my hand. "Come on Katniss. I'm here with you." I find the strength to move and Peeta and Haymitch pull me into the training centre whilst the cameras flash.

"God that was mad is it always like this?" Peeta asls letting me go.

"Yes but there's never that many cameras. Obviously the reaping made you both famous." Haymitch replies and thought depresses me even more. If one of us actually survive this thats it, no privacy forever. I cringe at the thought, that means that all the cameras will be on is in the arena and all the other tributes will be against us.

The tv switches on by itself and ceaser Flickerman comes on with someone beside him. "I just got word that the tributes from district 12 have arrived. After that tearful reaping who knows what they have in store for us..." They show footage from us just entering the training centre. I guess the tributes are going to see it then because they will probably put this on the recaps. "It looks like the famous Haymitch Abernathy and the new tribute Peeta Mellark are only wanting to keep katniss Everdeen safe by the way they kept her from the cameras.

I look towards Peeta and then at Haymitch. I think about the arena again. It's all I seem to think about now. Stupid Capitol. I don't know what it would be like to loose a boyfriend because I've never had one before Peeta an I haven't lost him yet. Would I be as heartbroken if he wasn't my boyfriend. If he died in that arena and he wasn't my boyfriend would I still be as upset as I would be if he died my boyfriend. I don't know but I sure know what I've got to do. I've got to break up with Peeta Mellark if I want to save his life...

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 **Please leave a review and let me know what you thought of it? It helps a lot :) Thank you**

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	5. Chapter 5

**Second chapter in one day :)**

* * *

 **5.**

As soon as the tv turns off Effie appears and takes us to the prep room. Once in the elevator, I realise how strange it is. So much different than the one in 12, but I guess everything is different here. Peeta doesn't seem fazed by the fact that we are in a moving floor he just looks straight ahead with a troubled look. I'll ask him what's wrong later but I can't right now with Effie around. Well I could but I dont think she will be happy with me and Peeta talking about our problems right infront of her.

Whilst we were watching the tv news report earlier, Haymitch ordered that me and Peeta had the same room but he didn't tell them why. I thanked him for it off course but Effie is going to definitely have something to say about it no matter what any of us say. Maybe I can ask Peeta what's wrong tonight when we are in bed. He seems to be ignoring me. He stands on the other side of Effie and he won't even look at me or react to anything I say. There is definitely something up.

When we get to the prep team I'm dropped off at one station and Effie takes Peeta to another one across the room. He gives me a brief hug before leaving but still doesn't look at me. I can see him waiting across the room. He looking at his shoes. He looks up and I smile to him. He smiles a little and goes back to looking at his shoes. I wonder if its something to do with the cameras. I know that he was fine with me before we got here but all of a sudden he doesnt want to talk to me. I guess I'll find out later, that is of course if he actually talks to me later.

My prep team show up 5 minutes later but Peeta is still sat by himself. They tell me who they are and I barely have enough time to tell them my name before thy are stripping me of my clothes. They take off my boots and my dress but when they get to my underwear that's when the shaking begins and all I can think about is Eric.

(PEETAS POV)

My prep team have just shown up when I hear a shout across the room. I look up to see Katniss in her underwear. She is screaming at her prep team to get away from her. "Whats up with her?" One of my prep team ask me. She sounds sarcastic. Almost like she hates Katniss. Instead of answering her, I stand up and walk past them.

"Katniss!" I shout. Most of the other tributes are watching us but I don't care all I know is that I have to get to her. She needs me now, more than anyone. Well most of all she needs her mum but I'm the best she has right now.

I would of thought another traumatic event like the reaping would knock Eric out of her mind but obviously I was wrong. When I make it there her prep team look very startled. They start talking to me about what happened but I cant listen to them, all I can hear is Katniss moaning and the chokes that come from her crying. The prep team need atleast something though, "I'm sorry she just has panic attacks sometimes, she has been through too much for a 16 year old girl" I say they look at me confused. They dont need to know what has happened to her.

"What kind of things?" One of them says, intrigued. I dont understand how this can in any way be interesting though.

I turn away from Katniss and look at them. "Its personal. Can we just drop it. Just be careful with her and I'm sure she will be fine. She has to know that she can trust you." They all nod, not saying anything else.

One of them starts to cry, "We will but how do we her to calm down?" The crying one asks.

"Just let me talk to her." They move aside, nodding and I walk over to Katniss, curled up in a bowl on the floor. "Katniss it's me Peeta." She turns to me with tears running down her face. She has been able to star controlling it now which means she doesnt lash out, she comes back straight away just cries for a while.

"Peeta?" She smiles slightly but starts crying more. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry." She mumbles, crawling up onto my lap, causing me to fall to the floor to hold her properly.

My hand finds her hair. "Its okay, you're gonna be fine." I say, she must know what happened. I know that she remembers it.

She nods and I help her up off the floor, latching herself to me when she realises that she is standing there in her underwear infront of people that she just met. "Are you ok" I ask her.

She tries to nod but it takes into a shake. "No" I kiss her on the head and lead her to the little thin bed that she would have been on before this happened. "I'm sorry about that." She mumbles towards her prep team and my prep team who must have walked over just after me.

I feel her start to shake again under my touch and I turn back to her. "Katniss it's fine trust me you just need to not think about that." I know its probably quite impossible but she needs to learn to think about something else when something reminds her of Eric.

"How can I not think about it when I didn't even know then they didn't even tell me what they where going to do an they stripped me down." She asks, shaking still.

"Ok well now that you know what they are going to do just calm down and let them and remember what Haymitch said ok? They won't hurt you and just remember that I am here and I always will be, I promise." I say, she probably needed to hear that, with everything that is going on right now, she needs to know that I will be with her, wether it is true or not true.

"Okay, thank you. You best go and get ready. I'll see you later." She says and I nod. "I love you." I reach in to kiss her.

"I love you too." I reply when I pull away and a second later I'm being led back to my station to get ready, leaving Katniss with them. I suppose I'm only across the room if something happens. I notice on the way back that most of the tributes have stopped to watch us. "Its alright, everyone go back to what they where doing." I shout as one of my prep team pulls me away.

(KATNISS POV)

When my prep team have finished they take me to meet my head stylist 'cinna'. I was expecting someone with a funny colour skin and weird clothes like every other Capitol citizen. Cinna looks nothing like that. The only weird thing about him Is that he wears gold eyeliner. It looks really good though.

I havent even noticed his presence before he speaks. "That was the bravest thing I've ever seen." He says taking my hand straight away. "How you volunteered for your sister and Peeta coming into the games."

"Thank you, I'll let him know." I've been very big for first impressions of people and I'm getting a really good vibe from him. I feel like I've known him for years.

"Your welcome and I want you to know that I am here for you whatever you want." He says.

I smile at him, "So whats this charm bracelet" He asks having a look. I honestly forgot that I was wearing it. I have been stripped of everything else, I'm surprised I am wearing it.

I smile slightly. I'm glad they left it on me. I was scared that someone was going to take it off me. I know I'm gonna have to let it go before the games because they wont let me take it into the arena with me. "I got it off Peeta and Haymitch on my birthday. I thought my prep team would take it from me but they didnt." I say laughing.

"I understand it is very beautiful. So how long have you known Haymitch?" A genuine question.

I know I can trust him, therefore I tell him the truth. "A year and he's done so much for me."

"Like what?" He is now sittinf infront of me holding my hand that has my bracelet on, smiling up at me as if we have been friends for years.

I take a breathe before telling him. I know I can but I hardly tell anyone this. "Like helping me save my boyfriend and his family when his house blew up. He found me after I was... Erm ... Raped. If he hadn't found me they would of killed me." His face drops and his free hand finds mine as if he is trying to comfort me.

"Oh I am so sorry to hear that. Does anyone else know?" He asks and I shake my head. "I know that its going to take a while but you should know that you can trust them. All of them. Effie mostly, Flavius, Venia and Octavia can be a bit forward but if you want I'll have a word with them, tell them whats happened and make sure they be careful with you?"

I start shaking my head almost immediately. "I dont want them feeling sorry for me. I'm not broken, I'm trying to get used to it. You can tell them whats happened but I dont want them feeling sorry for me at all, I'm just like everyone else."

He nods. "Noted... Okay, so the reaping, I know you volunteered for your sister but who was that that Peeta volunteered for? He doesnt have the same last name so they cant be related. Was it his best friend?"

"Far from it actually. That was the one who...attacked me. Peeta didnt want me going in with him even though he promised not to volunteer to go in with me." His smile once again drops and I nod.

Instead of saying something about it, he changes the conversation. "Ok good to know well tonight they have the tribute parade. Normally they dress people up with clothes from the district." He says.

"Yeh ours is coal miners." I say. We will probably be in no clothes with black paint all over us. I can see this tribute parade being horrible.

"Yeh well I don't wanna do that. Tell me katniss how do you feel about fire?" His eyebrow raises and now I'm kind of scared.

An hour later I am dressed in a skin tight black body suit with a cape and a crown. Its very elegant I'll give him that but I currently look very ridiculous. Somehow I think he has something else in mind. I just hope its not going to kill before I even have a chance to fight my way through the arena or help Peeta fight his way through the arena. We are walking to the bottom floor of the training centre to the carriages that will take us through the Capitol. That is where we will find Peeta, Haymitch and Effie waiting for us.

Peeta is dressed up in the same clothes as me with the cape but the crown is missing. His blonde hair has been slicked back. He looks very handsome. He sees me and smiles. He walk over and kisses me. The kiss is stopped by cinna apparently because of my make up.

"Sorry Cinna." I mumble, trying not to laugh at the fact that it wasnt Effie that stopped us like it probably should have been.

"It's totally ok. I just need her to look the part when she goes out there, not look like you've been kissing even if that is what they want." He says smiling. A woman with mad yellow curls and Capitol clothes on walks over to us. I dont know her, I've never seen her before but I think I have a good idea of who she is. I'm guessing she is Peeta's head stylist.

"Peeta you forgot your crown come here." He walks away from me and up to the woman. She puts the crown on top of his head careful not to wreck his hair. It looks really posh. I dont think I've seen him with hair that looks manageable. His curls have somehow and gone and his hair is slicked back revealing his entire face which I dont think I've ever seen before.

He walks back over to me with the woman behind him. "Katniss this is Portia my head stylist. Portia this is katniss my girlfriend."

"Katniss it's so nice to meet you Peeta talks about you all the time. I'm really sorry about what has happened with the games." She seems to be crying. Its nice to know she is like Cinna.

"It's nice to meet you too and thank you we are getting through it." I smile at her trying to reassure her but it doesn't work she keeps crying. She walks in the other direction. Peeta takes me in his arms.

"Ok the parade about to start." Cinna says. I pull away from Peeta and look at cinna. "Now remember it isn't real fire." He is holding what looks like a metal match with just a small bit of fire on it.

"Looks pretty real to me." Peeta says, keeping his arm around my waist incase Cinna tries to kill us with the fire or something.

"Yeh that's the point but these suits are built so you can't feel a thing." Thats when I find myself nodding.

Peeta climbs up onto the carriage and pulls me up after him. He keeps hold of my hand. Cinna come forward with the fire and next thing I know my cape is alight. It tickles but doesn't hurt. I look towards Peeta he looks amazing with the flames on his face.

"Katniss you look... Breath taking."He says. I blush and look away.

Next thing I know the carriage is moving. When we emerge from the tunnel the crowd goes mad. I look towards Peeta and his lips are on mine in seconds. I can't hear the crowd anymore. The only thing I can hear is Peeta telling me he loves me. I've got to stop kissing him if I want to save him but I just can't. When I pull away from him the crowd is going Berzerk and we are nearly at the end of the road. We smile an wave the rest of the way. I catch a rose that someone throws towards me and hold is up to the sky along with mine and Peeta hands.

President snow makes his speech that is the same every year and we are moving once again. When we get off the carriage cinna, Portia and Effie are waiting for us. I honestly feel so happy about that that I wouldnt mind doing it again. I have never felt like that.

"That was amazing." Effie says. Portia agrees with her and cinna walks up an give me a hug.

"You where both incredible but who's idea was the kissing?" Cinna asks.

"Nobodies it just happened." I say smiling at Peeta. He smiles back and I look at Cinna to see him smiling. I dont understand why everyone seems so happy that me and Peeta are together because in a situation like this, its probably the worst thing that could be happening.

Haymitch comes up next with a young man and woman. The man I recognise as Finnick odair who won 9 years ago at the age of 14 and I don't recognise the woman but she seems to be clinging into Finnick very tightly. She looks familiar, she might have won the games recently and thats how I know her but I'm not sure.

When they stop talking to eachother, Haymitch introduces them. "Katniss, Peeta I want you to meet someone, well actually they wanted to meet you."

Finnick holds his hand out to me, letting go of the woman for a second. "I'm finnick." He says as if he thinks I wouldnt know that even though everyone in this entire place knows that.

"Finnick Odair, yes I know. Everyone knows." I say, my eyes sligtly thinner than normal. I, unlike everyone else, doesnt like him. All I hear at school is talk about Finnick Odair, that is unless they are talking about the Mellarks of course.

The woman comes over and introduces herself as Annie Cresta from district 4. Now she seems more familiar after she told me her name.

"I just wanted to say that what you did at the reaping was very brave and I don't think I would of been able to do that at the age of 16." The girl, Annie says. Thats when I realise who she is. The winner of the 70th Hunger Games. From what I know, she went mad during the games and has never been right since.

"Thank you. You had probably been through a lot more than me by the time you where 16 though." I say. I dont know what she has been through but by the look of it, she is dating Finnick and from what I heard he started being a prostitute when he was 16 so she would have to have dealt with that and watching him go through the games, that sounds hard enough. She doesnt say anything back but Finnick does start talking again.

"Well, it was nice to meet you guys but you look like you could do with some sleep so I'll leave you to it." He nods and walks away.

As soon as his back is turned I cant help but laugh. Peeta looks at me like I'm crazy. "What's so funny?" He asks and I cant help but laugh more.

"Them I can't believe him, he's such an idiot." Thats when he starts laughing, causing me to laugh more. I cant help myself its just so funny.

We walk back to our floor and me an Peeta walk straight to our room. He uses the bathroom first and comes out 10 minutes later with a towel round him and he smells of strawberry. Its very nice compared to what he normally smells of but you can stil lsmell the old smell.

I walk into the bathroom and step into the shower. I press some buttons and the water comes out hot, I scream.

"Katniss are you alright?" Peeta shouts through the door, almost straight away as if he was standing outside the door listening in incase I died or something like that.

"Yeh I'm fine sorry it's just that the shower was too hot I don't know how to work it." I hear him laugh slightly as I step back into the shower thats cooled down.

"Ok." I hear his feet as he walks away and then any sound that he is making is gone. He must have sat down or something.

I find a button that says strawberry and I press it. The water turns pink and it smells like whatever Peeta had done to himself. I decide that it is a really good smell and leave it as that.

I step out of the shower a few minutes later realising I never got myself some clothes out. I'm gonna have to go back into the room to grab some clothes.

I walk back in and Peeta is watching the recap of the tribute parade on the tv. "You looked very beautiful with fire around you." He says without turning around. When he does turn around and sees me in a towel he smiles. "You look even more beautiful now."

"I've only come to get my clothes." He laughs at me but I just turn away and go to open the drawers. This was meant to be my room so there should be some clothes in here.

I hear him stand up and walk over to me, a second later I feel his hands around my waist. It feels good to be alone after today. Its been a rollercoaster of a day and there is probably more to come up until the end of the games atleast.

His hands slide around my waist and link at the front and I can feel his lips on my neck as my hands find his, enjoying it so much. "You're my beautiful girl." I blush.

He kisses me "I love you so much." I mumble.

"I love you more." He is kissing my neck again and thats when his name comes from my lips followed by a moan.

I pull away from him. "I need to get changed." I walk over to the wardrobe to find both mine and Peetas clothes in the same place. He must have moved them here ealier or someone did when Haymitch ordered us to have the same room.

I pull out one of Peetas shirts and a pair of my shorts. He wears some pyjama pants and no top. I walk back into the bathroom to get changed.

When I come back in Peeta is sat on the bed with a box in his hands.

"Me and Haymitch got you these." Why does he keep getting me presents?

"Peeta you need to stop getting me presents."

"It was Haymitch's idea not mine he just told me to give you them"

I take the box if him. Inside is 2 charms for my bracelet. There is a cute little primrose flower and a big 12. He attaches them to my bracelet for me and kisses me on the forehead.

We climb into bed and fall asleep in eachothers arms. I cant help but fall asleep with a smile on my face.

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	6. Chapter 6

**6.**

Its around 7 o clock the next morning when I wake up, just before Effie starts knocking on the door. I'm surprised she woke us up so late. Well its late for her anyway. Considering we have to be ready by 9, its late. She seems to think that we take about 3 hours to get ready as I've noticed over the space of 2 days.

Peeta is already awake when I open my eyes. I expected it though as he is used to waking up at about 4 in the morning back home to work at the bakery before school and I've noticed since we started dating that he isnt very good at sleeping in foreign beds.

He is reading a small book when I look at him. "Hey how are you?" He asks, pulling his eyes away from his book for a minute to kiss me on the nose. I snuggle back into his side, forgetting about Effie's attempts at getting us out of bed.

"I'm brilliant." I reply with a scowl. He knows full well how I am. It still makes us both laugh. "I'm a bit hungry though." He smiles, turning to me and dropping his book on his bed side table. I dont have a clue where he got it from but he clearly likes it as he doesnt read that often. I used to love reading when we could afford books but since father died, I only have the ones we used to ready together and I put them up in the loft after he died and havent looked at them since.

He wraps me up in his big strong arms and I let out a sigh. I know that sometime real soon this is going to be interrupted by a certain frilly person. "So am I actually I don't think skipping dinner last night was a good idea." We both laugh again and I can feel his chest vibrate as he does so.

"No and we left Effie an Haymitch by themselves I don't think that went well." I'm about to laugh but I hear a knock on the door again and I dont wait to see who talks I just shout, "Its been 5 minutes! Have some patience!" Peeta starts laughing at me and by the sound of the heals walking back down the corridor, it was Effie at the door. Haymitch is probably still in bed himself.

"So did you sleep well?" I ask Peeta, a smile appearing on my face again.

"Up until 2 this morning, yeh." He sighs and I think I already know whats coming. "I had a nightmare and I havent been able to sleep since then, I got a book from one of the Avox's, something that she recommended and I've been reading it since then."

I know what it feels like after a nightmare so I dont say anything, I jsut wrap my arms tighter around him. After what happened with Eric, I had atleast 3 nightmares every night and it messed with my head so much that I kept zoning out and staring at walls and I had pushed Peeta away, not realising that I needed him more than anyone else. Now that I think about it, I can hardly remember anything from them months. There is little bits like eating or talking to my mum but most of has gone from my memory. I know he needs me now and thats why I'm going to be here for him for as long as I can. Broken up or not. Peeta must sense that there is something on my mind becayse he pulls away from me and asks, "Whats up?" The smiles have gone from both our faces now.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about everything. Eric, the games, you, me." I say, truthfully. Silence falls until he says something.

"Come on we need to eat." He says, completely changing the subject. I love how he knows that I wouldnt want to talk about it.

We climb out of bed and just walk down to breakfast in our pyjamas. After Peeta pulls on a shirt obviously. I wouldnt let him walk out without his shirt off anyway. Effie might kill us both if we where missing any piece of clothing after waking up.

Effie and Haymitch are already at breakfast. Haymitch is sober and having a conversation with Effie about training today. Peeta and I take our seats as quickly as we can and begin filling up our plates higher than yesterday.

"Eat a lot kids you have training today." Effie says and then goes back into a conversation with Haymitch. Honestly I dont think I'm gonna have much of a problem eating a lot today.

I load my plate with eggs, bacon, sausages, toast, beans, batter cakes and some other things I don't recognise but taste good. I also take a mug of hot chocolate but it's gone in 2 minutes so I end up getting another one.

When we finish both Peeta an I look a little green from the food again. I guess its going to take a while to get used to it and hopefully I feel fine before training. I dont want to be the one to throw up all over the place.

Haymitch turns to us when we are wiping our faces with the napkin provided. "Now let's get down to business. Training. First off I'm guessing you would like to be coached together and not separately."

"Why would we want to be coached separately?" I ask him.

"I don't know it was just a question sweetheart."

"Well together." Peeta says.

"Ok an one last thing before Effie takes you down. In public I want you two by each others side all the time." As if I would have it any other way.

"Obviously." I reply.

"Yeh and don't show your skills in the training centre save it for your private sessions."

"Ok."

"Now go have fun." He says sarcastically.

Me and Peeta leave the table to get changed. When we get back to our room there are 2 suits on the bed that we are meant to wear. They look uncomfortable but I guess we dont have any choice. I go into the bathroom to get changed and Peeta stays in the bedroom.

When I'm change I walk back out but Peeta still isn't changed. I let out a little scream an he jumps falling over.

"Peeta put your pants on!" I shout to him. He starts laughing.

"What you laughing about?" I ask him. This is no laughing matter. I have a feeling that this is when he says something that makes me scowl at him.

He stops to look at him with his pants still half way up his thighs. "You. I'm your boyfriend it doesn't matter if you see me an I have underwear on anyway." He's still laughing but I pull my hands away from my face and see thats he's right.

"I can't get my pants on anyway." Peeta says. "They are hard to pull up and my wrist is making it hard. I only have one hand remember." Oh I forgot he has a broken hand. "Is it too much trouble to ask you to help me?" I shake my head, I dont really have that much problem with it. Who else in this place is going to help him anyway?

I get them up quickly enough but just as I'm pulling his shirt down, Haymitch walks into the room. "What the hell is taking so lo- what... are you doing?" He asks, stopping in his tracks. I freeze, trying not to laugh.

"If you hadnt noticed Haymitch, I only have one hand, I cant get dressed by myself. Katniss was helping me." Peeta says and I cant hold in my laughter anymore at the look of Haymitch's face. He looks horrified.

He starts edging his way out of the room slowly, still looking horrified. "Ok I'm just gonna go." Then he's gone and I burst out laughing.

"Come on we need to redress your wrist." I say once I've started laughing. He sits on the toilet whilst I redress his wrist using about 4 bandages from the medicine cabinet in my bathroom. He will probably need extra protection on it today.

When we get to the training centre everyone is already there. We join the circle and the woman starts telling us about the hunger games even though we already know it.

As soon as she has finished Peeta nudges me in the arm. "So where do you want to start?" He asks me, watching me look around the room.

"What about knot tying?" I ask him. He smiles and nods.

"Sounds fun." We walk over to the knot tying station and the instructor looks happy that he has guests.

I can do all the knots that he teaches us but I have to help Peeta on nearly all of them. Considering he only has one hand and he has never been good at it anyway, I dont mind helping him.

When we are done with knot tying we go over to the camouflage station. Peeta loves this station. He paints me into a tree and when I go into the trees I seem to disappear. I knew he could draw but I didnt know he was this good. He helps me clean off all the paint from my body and we move on.

"What now?" I ask him. He turns around but all the stations have someone in and we are trying to avoid people, I dont think any of them like us at all after the reaping and how a lot of the Capitol citizens are probably routing for one of us.

"What about wrestling thats empty?" He asks me. Thats one of his strong points though.

"But Haymitch said where not suppose to show our skills and anyway we would have to wrestle one of the people who work here, that doesnt sound fun at all." I say, laughing. I can only wrestle Peeta because I know his weak spots. The people here could actually be stronger than Peeta.

"Well I don't care what Haymitch said and I'll talk to them about it." He says and leads me over the wrestling station. They arent going to let us do it but its worth a try.

"Hey is there anyway that me and katniss can wrestle together?" He asks the attendant standing near the wrestling station.

"Sorry no can do cranes orders." He doesnt even look at us when he speaks. I dont know what he is looking at.

A sigh leaves my mouth but Peeta urges on. "But we are the same district and did you not see the reaping I'm not going to kill her and she isn't going to kill me." Peeta says. The attendant looks at us for the first time, as if making sure we are from the same district and nods.

"I will talk to crane about it." He dissapears and I turn to Peeta.

"You know this is going to draw a lot of attention right?" I ask him because if the other tributes see us fighting eachother then that will be the first time anyone has ever done that under authorisation and its not going to look good for us. Everyone will be demanding to fight eachother.

Peeta turns to me and pulls me close, not helping the attention thing. "And why is that?" He asks.

"Because tributes aren't meant to fight other tributes unless you are in the arena." I say, wrapping my arms tightly around him.

"Yeh but we don't know if we are allowed yet." He kisses me on the head.

"Well if we are then we will be watched." I say into his chest.

"I know but I only want to wrestle with you." He mumbles and kisses me properly just as the attendant shows up again.

"Crane said that you can wrestle but if it goes too far we can take disciplinary action." He moves out the way to let us go through and I start to strip off my shoes, so does Peeta. I curl my pants up a couple times and we take out places on the mat, getting into the right position, the one that Peeta taught me.

"No mercy." Peeta says to me and I nod.

"And no going soft." I reply because Peeta has a tendancy to do that when he is fighting me as if I couldnt take it. He smiles at me but I jump forward grab his arms, bending them up and behind his head, my legs leave the floor as I jump up onto his back, holding him in that position. I use my right foot and hit him in the back of his leg, he falls and I fall with him, landing on top of him. He squirms but I still have him in my hold.

"No mercy." I hear him mumble again and in no time at all he has spun around underneath me and thrown me off him. I land on my back on the mat and he's now on top of me. Sweat is now pouring down both of our faces as I struggle underneath him.

What can I do? I have to do something. He cant win this. Thats when I realise, I have an advantage right now. I can use the one thing I have, his love. I quickly reach up and smash my lips into his giving him the best kiss I ever have and probably turning him on but luckily his hands loosen and I get my leg lose and kick him away from me, winding him and knocking him to the floor, I crawl towards him and pull myself up to stand over him, one foot on either side of his torso, both of us out of breath.

"Is that all you got Everdeen?" He asks, laughing slightly. I laugh in reply and nod.

"Thats all I need Mellark." I reply, he laughs again and grabs my knees. I quickly grab his hands, knowing what he is going to do but its too late to stop him, he throws me over his head and I just have time to tuck my head under when I hit the mat with my shoulder. I'm surprised he was able to do that with his bad wrist. I see him jump up and he starts walking towards me, I ignore the pain in my right shoulder and jump up facing him.

"Do you give up yet?" He asks, his face inches from mine.

"Me? Katniss Everdeen, give up? Never." I smile at him and he smiles back, leaning forward to kiss me but I lean back. "No, you're not allowed to use that against me."

"Fine, cause I dont need to. I can take you down anyway." He says and laughs. As he laughs, I think about what Rye told me once about wrestling Peeta. He has a soft spot right behind his right knee. I just have to get to it.

He reaches out to grab me but I duck out the way quick enough and escape between his legs coming up at the back of him and in one swift motion I push my foot out hard, straight into the back of his right knee. He lets out a howl and crumples to the floor. "Fine, I give up you win." He mumbles, holding his hands up and I smile, walking past him but as I get close to his face his hand swings out, hitting me in the ankles and I tumble down to the floor, dropping right next to him. "Rye told you didnt he?" He asks me and I nod. "What an idiot."

When I finally sit up I notice atleast half of the tributes watching us. Some of them are smiling, others like district 2 are watching us with jealousy. They all look angry. I ignore them and help Peeta up off the mat and leading him back over to our shoes.

The bell rings signalling lunch and everyone is taken to the dining hall in single file line. Peeta is behind me and the male from district 11, thresh, is infront of me.

When we get there. Districts 1,2 and 4 make a group table to the side but the rest of the districts just stay with their partners. Me an Peeta walk straight to the food table an grab enough food for us both. We take the table as far away from the careers as possible. I face the rest of them. Some of them are looking at us with a look of jealousy and some seem to be laughing at us.

Me and Peeta eat lunch in silence and we are then sent back to the training centre for a few hours before dinner.

The next 2 days go by really fast. As promised we don't show any of our skills. We just stick to knotting and making fires and things like that. I spent the whole time with Peeta I made sure he was always by my side. I don't know how much longer I have with him but I know I can probably count the amount of days on one hand ...

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	7. Chapter 7

**7** **.**

The training seems to go by really quickly. Me and Peeta cover everything but the shooting and anything that would show Peeta's strength. It becomes a little fun sometime during the second day and me and Peeta keep creating little games at every station which helps speed it up I suppose but every minute I still worry about my private session. I know I'm going to show them my shooting but I'm only used to using my own bow back home in the woods, I havent had a chance to use their bows so I dont know what they are like. I'm hoping they arent much different. I watched the district 1 girl using one whilst me and Peeta where at one of the stations and it looks tighter thsn my own but it might simply be that she isnt that strong. I guess I'll see soon.

Today is the last day and this afternoon, after lunch we will go to our private sessions, one by one. Starting with the District 1 male and ending with me. Which means I will be sat there for a good few hours, worrying. Atleast I'll have Peeta by my side until he's called.

In the morning, me and Peeta split up. He goes over to throw some spears with Thresh from 11, well not with him. Thresh is just there when he gets there. I however, end up being the only person at the climbing station. The first obstacle I devour way too easily. The second one is a little harder but I get through it easily. The third one takes me a little longer. The fourth one, I get half way up when I hear someone yelling at someone else, I turn to see Cato from District 2 getting up in Peeta's face but Peeta just smiles at me and I smile back. I decide to climb back down to find out whats going on but as I move my foot down, I slip and I try to grab hold of something but I cant and in no time at all, I hit the floor and everything blacks out.

When I next wake up, I'm lying on the floor with a pounding headache. Peeta is standing over me with one of the attendants next to him. "You alright?" Peeta asks, looking worried and I nod. The attendant walks away almost immediately and it is really quiet for some reason. Everyone is either watching or gone somewhere.

"Where is everyone?" I ask as Peeta helps me up off the floor. I dont know why I blacked out considering the mat is underneath me.

"Dinner started 10 minutes ago, we should get going. You okay?" He asks. I get up and sway a little, everything spins and Peeta has to hold me still.

I nod even though I'm not that fine. "Everythings just spinning thats all. Come on I'm hungry." I'm not really hungry but I know Peeta will. He always has eaten a lot when he has been worried. With the private sessions this afternoon I dont doubt that he is hungry.

In the dinner hall, its oddly quiet. For the past couple of days, everyone has been talking and laughing and generally having a good time but today, no-one is saying a word, they are all just sitting there silently having something to eat. When we walk in we get a few people looking at us, clearly they all saw what happened out there. As they look at us, Peeta moves me away and takes me over to the food table. "Just ignore them Katniss." They probably think that I'm weak because I fell off the climbing wall but I'm not and they will come to see that in time.

Peeta is swallowing the last piece of his second plate of food when the first tribute is called, 'Marvel'. He turns to look at me with his mouth full of food and smiles slightly. I finished my food a while ago and I'm surprised Peeta can eat, I'm that nervous that I dont think I'll even be able to have tea. When he see's Marvel standing up to take his place at the doors, he looks back down at his empty plate and stands up, taking it with him. I follow him, realising that he has had too much or he will end up throwing up during his private session. "Peeta, dont you think you have had enough?" I whisper to him but we catch the attention of the Career table when I grab his arm to pull him back and he snatches it off me. He glares at me until something in his face changes, like he didnt realise it was me at first. "You're gonna make yourself sick."

"Katniss..." He whispers. "I'm scared. I wont be able to lift anything with my wrist this way and you havent even tried their bow. We arent going to be able to do this." He is now gripping my arm. There is pure fear in his eyes, which I have only seen one other time and that was when I woke up after hitting my head at Haymitch's that day.

I ignore the look in his eyes, however much it is scaring me and grab his free hand, which turns out to be his broken wrist. "Listen to me, even if you wont be able to lift anything, you where able to wrestle and you can do what I taught you in the other stations. I know you will think of something Peeta."

He takes a breathe and closes his eyes for a moment. I take this chance to look away to find no-ones eyes on us anymore. "Thank you." Peeta says, I quickly look at him again, just as he is opening his eyes. He pulls me to him and we kiss, right there in the middle of the room full of people that could be trying to kill either of us in a couple of days.

About 5 hours later, its just me and Peeta sitting in silence until his name is called. 'Peeta Mellark' He looks at me, just like he did when Marvel was called and I look back. He still looks scared. I do the only thing I can think of and reach up to kiss him. He seems to unclench and lets go of my hand, walking to the door, strong. "Good luck. I love you." I say to him just as the door opens.

"I love you too." He replies and dissapears from view.

I'm sat there thinking about how he is doing or what he is doing when suddenly I hear this loud crash, making me jump almost completely out of my seat. I pull myself up and walk to the doors, hoping that I would be able to see something through them but I cant. I'm trying to look through the gap in the door when I hear my name, making me jump again. 'Katniss Everdeen'. Good thing I'm already stood here.

The door opens and Peeta is on the other side looking really angry. "I'm sorry about that." He smiles at me sadly, motioning behind him and then he walks away. I walk into the room to find atleast 10 peacekeepers picking up pieces of what was obviously the climbing wall. Did Peeta do that? Oh no, thats terrible, they are definitely not going to like him after that little stunt.

PEETA POV

When I leave Katniss standing there, I walk to the elevator and push the 12 button with my fist. I was planning on staying here and waiting for her but I need to get out of here and cool down. The bastards wherent even paying attention to me, what do they expect me to do? Stand there and wait? Call them? Do it anyway and hope that they saw me? No, I had to get there attention somehow and when my attention fell on the climbing wall, I thought about Katniss falling and next thing I know the wall was falling. A few of the game-makers where actually applauding me though, atleast one good thing came out of it, even if I did lose my patience which isnt really a good thing apparently.

The doors open to the 12th floor and I step out. Haymitch, Effie, Portia and Cinna are sitting there. "How did it go?" Haymitch asks whilst everyone else sits there quietly. I think about dissapearing to my bedroom but instead I throw myself down onto the sofa and let out a long breathe. "Well?"

"Oh brilliant!" I shout at Haymitch. "Even though I might as well have killed myself in that training centre because now I'm gonna be dead within 2 minutes of the arena and so is Katniss!"

Haymitch speaks again, the rest of them just sit there in silence. "Okay, firstly dont take it out on me, its not my fault that you are a complete idiot and secondly what did you do?" So I explain it to them. Thats when Haymitch bursts out laughing and Effie starts flapping her fan at me, giving me every curse word she probably knows, which isnt that many.

When Katniss walks in about 2 minutes later, she gets the same question from Haymitch but unlike me she just huffs and walks off to her bedroom. Looks like both of us are getting low scores.

KATNISS POV

Why the hell did I do that? What was I trying to prove? That was probably the stupidest thing I have ever done in my entire life. Now I've done it. No doubt they are gonna kill me and Peeta within the first 24 hours and I wanted to keep Peeta safe. He wanted to keep me alive and now both of our pllans are ruined. Not that I wanted to survive anyway.

The elevator doors open behind me and I hear a quick mumbling of a conversation and then everyone falls silent when they realise that the doors just opened. I know that Peeta is with them because why would he not be? He faces his problems unlike me. Keeping that in mind, I step out of the elevator and run past them all towards the hallway and lock myself in my bedroom, throwing my clothes to one side and jumping into the shower.

It doesnt feel like too long when I hear a knock on the bathroom door. I have no idea how they got in as I locked the bedroom door but somehow they did. "Katniss? You in there?" Its Peeta. I stay silent though, I dont want to see him. "Look, I can hear the water running, I know you're in there. Whatever happened in your private session, we can work through it I just need you to come out."

"Go away!" I shout through the water.

I hear him sigh on the other side of the door. "If you dont want to talk I understand but dinner is ready, come and eat." More silence. I honestly dont think I'm up for eating just yet. "Please Katniss, you need to eat. Look if I go back without you, Haymitch will be coming down and I dont think either of us want that."

I sigh and turn off the shower. He's right. Haymitch always makes a big deal out of it. I think he has been spending too much time with Effie to be honest. "Fine, can you grab me some pyjamas?" I ask him as nicely as I can and begin trying to get rid of the red spots all over my face from crying.

Dinner isnt what I expected it to be. Everyone seems happy, hardly anyone talks to me. I expected everyone to be questioning me, though it does eventually come, most of it is fine. Its not until I've finished my food that Haymitch turns to me. "Right Sweetheart, He fessed up, its your turn now, how bad was it?" He asks, leaning over slightly.

I can lie to them, they need the truth and what harm can it do really if they knew? "Very bad, I shot an arrow at them." It comes out just above a whisper but they still catch it and I can tell by the horrified look on Effie's face and Haymitch laughing. Cinna and Portia are just watching me which isnt too bad.

"You what?" Effie all but screams. "How could you do that! Are you crazy? You realise that your actions reflect badly on all of us not just you!"

"Its fine. They just want a good show." Cinna pipes up giving me a small wink.

"How about its just bad manners Cinna? How about that?" Effie asks waving her fan around. I look at Peeta trying to stifle a laugh. "And what are you laughing about?" She looks to Haymitch who isnt trying to control his laughter in anyway.

Instead of noticing Effie at all, Haymitch turns to me. "What did they do when you shot the arrow?" He asks, leaning forward slightly in his chair to get a better a look at me or whatever.

"Well, they look pretty startled." I say remembering how one imparticular reacted. "One of them actually fell back into the punch ball." Haymitch throws his head back and his laughs fill the room once again. I can hear Peeta laughing beside me and I cant help but smile.

He looks as if he is about to say something else but then Effie chimes up. "Come on, the show should be starting soon." Then she leaves in a huff. Me and Peeta follow her first, closely followed by Cinna and then Portia. Haymitch stays behind to finish his food but joins us about 5 minutes after we get there. The tv comes on just as he enters.

The careers mostly get 10's except from the boy from 4 who gets a 7 and the girl from 4 who gets a 10. 3,5,6,7,8 and 9 dont do that bad but they are no where near as good as districts 1 and 2. I guess no one ever is though. I definitely wont be and Peeta wont either. The boy from District 10 does really bad but he has a broken leg so he wouldnt have done good anyway. I dont how he is going to survive 2 days in that arena. With that thought, I find myself looking down at Peetas wrist which is lying on his leg as he rubs circles at the base of it. He notices me and takes my hand in both of his and smiles at me. I smile back just as I hear Caesar Flickerman announce that the little girl from 11, Rue, got an 8. My eyes go back to the tv in awe. How can such a small girl get a score like that?

Thresh gets a 10 which doesnt surprise me at all. Then its on to us and I pull myself up to lean forward. Peeta is first and this is the one I'm really worried about. "Peeta Mellark, District 12..." Caesar starts. "With a score of... 9" I let out a shaky breath, thats good. We can deal with that. Everyone congratulates him and then its my turn. "Katniss Everdeen... With a score of...11." The room erupts in applause and even Caesar is surprised.

I find myself looking at Peeta but he's gone all frigid. No moving and not reacting to the fact that I got a good score. His hand is tighter in mine than it was before. Something wrong. Whilst everyone else is cheering. Peeta is thinking about the bad things and once again over thinking it, like he has done as long as I have known him. Just like that night with Eric, his dad told me what he was like and it would have come down to him over thinking it all because he does this time after time after time and the only person that gets hurt is him. "To Katniss Everdeen the girl on fire!" I hear Cinna behind me but I cant focus on anything but Peeta.

He's still not looking at me when he pulls himself up dropping my hand and walking out of the room. "Peeta..." I mumble and Haymitch turns to me whilst everyone else celebrates.

"He knows its bad." Haymitch says and I nod. "And he's gonna over think?" I nod again. Haymitch saw him that night with Eric too so he knows what its like. Nobody else in this room would understand. "Just give him time and find him later." I nod a third time and turn to the festivities even though I'm not going to celebrate so instead I find myself going to bed. I need to sleep. After the events of the day I'm knackered and the clock tells me its 9:06 anyway so its about time I did.

I get to sleep easy enough but I dont stay asleep for long as I end up waking up sometime later, at first I have no idea why and then I realise that its because I'm alone. Peeta hasnt come to bed yet and everyone else would have gone to bed so he isnt talking to them lot.

I decide its best off, me looking for him. Its not normal for him to be out of bed at this time, which is 1:06 by the way. I pull on my robe from the door and slide my feet into the shoes that I was wearing at the reaping. A thought quickly runs through my head. I wonder if Cinna would let me and Peeta wear our matching shoes for the games, it might make me feel a little bit better, maybe I can talk to him about it. Now onto the more important thing.

As soon as I'm in the hallway, the cold hits me. Someone must have left the door to the roof open, I'm about to walk that way when I hear voices from the sitting room. Not anyone I recognise so it must be the tv, which means that someone is awake or asleep in the sitting room. When I get there I find Haymitch asleep in one of the chairs. I turn off the tv and continue my search for Peeta.

I look in Haymitch's room but I don't dare look in Effie's. Id rather not see her without all the make up and stuff on. She would probably have something to say about it if I did anyway and I dont think I'm up for Effie's rath at this time in the morning when I have no idea where my boyfriend is. Its not like he's going to be in there anyway so I move on.

I look in the room that would of been Peetas if we didn't share a room. The covers on the bed are all ruffled so he has been here. It doesnt look like he was sleeping here, just like he was looking for something, or throwing the covers around but the pillows definitely havent been slept on, the seem untouched. The clothes he was wearing today are on the bed. I check the bathroom but no one is there. I look in the drawers to find loads of clothes soI pull out a pair of Peetas pyjama bottoms and a hoodie from the drawers and swap them for the covers around me, finishing the look with a jacket that is hung on a hook next to the drawers. Its time to go up to the roof, thats the only other place he could be.

When I get to the roof I see Peeta looking out over the Capitol. Letting out a sigh, I walk out the door and I'm hit with too much wind. It's freezing. Peeta is out here in some pyjama pants, no top and no shoes. He might be a lot stronger than me with these kind of things but I'm really surprised that he can stand it. Thats when I notice how stiff he is and just how blue his hands are turning, he cant stand it at all. The tears streaming down his face have all but freezed.

"Peeta what are you doing out here?" I say wrapping my arms around him. He's freezing. "Peeta your freezing we need to get you inside." He turns to me and as soon as he sees my face, his head hits my shoulder and he lets out a sob as his arms circle round my waist. Under the jacket that I took from Peetas room.

"You shouldnt be out here, you should be in bed." He says, pulling away from me once again and looking me in the eye before turning away really quickly to look over the Capitol again. I knew that he would be over thinking it but I had no idea that he would let himself freeze while doing so.

I start to shake my head even though he cant even see me. "I'm not going back without you I can't sleep." He turns toward me and smiles slightly but turns away again as I wrap his jacket around my tighter.

"I'm fine Katniss, I'll be down soon. I'll meet you down there." I barely hear him say.

I cant let him stay up here by himself, is he crazy? "Then I'm going to wait for you, what's wrong." I ask, wrapping my arms around him from behind.

He sighs and I can feel it rumble through his back. "I can't stop thinking about that 11 just flashing on the tv. It's going to make the careers come after you. I dont know how much I will be able to save you from." His head drops and he grips the ledge tighter.

I pull my face away from his back and move round to his front but he still wont look at me. "Peeta let's talk about this tomorrow please it's late we need to sleep." He begins to shake his head so I strip off his jacket and the hoodie and pull the jacket back on but hand him the hoodie.

He finally looks up at me but is still gripping the ledge that I am now leaning against inbetween his arms. "No I'm not cold" He shakes his head again and I just pull it over his head, not taking no for an answer. Not long after I get him downstairs.

When we get back to our room I leave Peeta on the bed and run back to the other room. I grab both covers from my bed and his bed. All his pillows and another hoodie from his drawers for me. I take of my boots and leave them with his and our reaping clothes.

I go back to my room and Peeta is asleep curled up in a ball. Peeta isn't the kind of person to Sleep like that he is the kind of person to sleep spread out. It must be because of how cold he is. I quickly lay one of the covers over him and then the other one and climb under with him, carefully as to not wake him up. He needs sleep tonight. The normal heat he emits is gone and it's just cold, its not normal. I feel tears fall from my eyes. I try my best to fall asleep not thinking about how cold I am next to him. He needs the warmth or he will get ill. I dont think Peeta's going to be the one loosing sleep tonight.

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 **So Peeta isn't doing too well with this whole thing! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!**


	8. Chapter 8

**8.**

I hardly slept last night. Not really anyway. I must have fallen asleep at one point though because when I wake up, Peeta is gone. I led there watching Peeta sleep for a couple of hours thinking about what I needed to do, break up with him. Its still there in the back of my head, something that needs to happen before the games but what happened last night makes that very hard. With the way he acted, he needs me. I will always need him but that a sacrifice I'm willing to make. Something tells me that there will be more sacrifices in the arena. This will be the first of many. I know though, that I cant do it now, not after last night, he needs time to get over this first and then I'll do it.

Wondering where he is, I pull myself out of bed and wander out into the hall. My first instinct is the roof considering what happened not long ago but I banish it at the moment and walk into the sitting room to see if Haymitch is still up. Instead I find Peeta, sitting at the table, eating a bowl of cereal as if nothing happened last night. Its cold in here so I wrap myself up tighter in Peeta's hoodie which I'm still wearing from last night. "Peeta?" I ask, finding my voice slightly croaky. It must have been the cold last night, please dont say I'm losing my voice, not the day before the interviews?

He looks up in surprise and when he sees me he looks even more surprised. "Katniss...Good morning?" He says, its more of a question.

I take my usual seat at the table next to him. "Why are you so surprised. I do sleep down the hall you know?" I try to laugh but my throat hurts so I stop.

"Its 4 in the morning." He says, still looking at me, the spoon hanging loosely in his hand and a book hanging in the other. "Are you okay? You coming down with something?" The spoon drops out of his hands and he feels my forehead. "Your voice is going." I cant tell him the truth of how he feels because I cant make him feel guilty so I smile and nod. "Okay well how come you're up so early?"

"Bed was too warm. And you wherent there, felt lonely." I say to him with a smile as if it means nothing but he looks away from me and at his bowl of cereal. "How long have you been out here?"

He takes a spoonful of his cereal and looks at his book as if I'm not even here. "About an hour and a half, since about half 3. I think you had only just fallen asleep when I got up. I left you there, you didnt have enough sleep." Thats true, I definitely didnt have enough sleep last night. I'm the tired I could probably fall asleep in one of these very uncomfortable chairs.

"What happened to you last night?" I ask him even though I'm pretty sure I already know the answer to it. "I mean, what was wrong?"

This seems to anger him and he drops his spoon. "That stupid 11! It messed up my head!" Suddenly he completely looses it on his bowl of cereal and it flies against the wall. His chair falls backwards as he shoots up to his feet so quickly that I find myself standing up too. "All I want to do in that arena is save your life and get you home just like I promised Prim and now this 11 makes it so much harder, they will all be going after you and I dont know what to do!" He's pacing backwards and forwards and I can see the tears in his eyes.

I try to say his name but he ignore me so I have to shout, probably waking everyone up. "Peeta! Stop!" He looks at me but doesnt really acknowledge that I said anything. "Stop it! This isnt you! We can talk about this but right now we both need sleep." Now my voice is really going to go.

"I cant sleep. I just need to sort this out I need to figure out a way to make this all alright." He's still pacing.

"Stop, Peeta, You're gonna wake everyone up." I hesitantly walk up to him and when he turns around I think he's going to hit me or something but he just falls and his head hits my chest as he cries. "Its okay." I say but I can feel myself crying too, I've never seen him like this and I dont like it. He's always the strong one, not me. I pull him over to the sofa and sit him down but he wont let go of me so I sit next to him and within seconds he is asleep on my knees. I sigh and my head falls back against the sofa back and my eyes close. Not exactly where I wanted to sleep but when you need sleep you need sleep.

...

"I'm sure it will be fine." I hear someone say, bringing me back to consciousness. "Dont you think we should wake them up?" Its Effie.

"No need." I say and the all look at me. "Sorry if I woke any of you up last night." I say, looking down at my knees. Peeta still lies there, snoring. He's been covered in a blanket and must have woke up sometime to pull up his hood because all I can see is the side of his face.

Haymitch speaks this time. "Its fine sweetheart. Is your voice alright?" He asks, I comepletely forgot about that.

"Dunno-" I'm cut off by a cough, a very painful one. "I spent sometime up on the roof last night, I'm probably coming down with something and I wouldnt be surprised if Peeta is either. And the shouting. My voice just went." I grab a cushion from near Peeta's feet and replace me with it so that he can carry on sleeping. "What time is it?" I ask.

"Its only 7 Katniss. We didnt think you would be asleep much longer anyway, we have to get going soon." Thats right, its interview training today.

"Do you mind if we leave Peeta another couple of hours, he only had about one hours sleep last night?" Eventually they all nod and I join them at the table to eat some breakfast. "So what did you hear from last night?" I ask Haymitch. He might be a heavy sleeper but he always seems to hear everything.

"Well I heard you come in and turn the tv off this morning when I was asleep so I got up to walk to my bedroom but then I heard you talking up on the roof. A couple hours I woke up to Peeta shouting. Its alright though I went back to sleep for another 2 hours." I nod and he smiles. "Must have been bad." He knows what Peeta is like so I dont really have to explain myself and I dont particularly want anyone else in this room to know what he gets like.

"So, whats planned for today?" I ask, changing the conversation subject. I dont particularly want to talk about last night, I'd like it to stay in the past to be honest.

Effie answers me. "Interview Training."

"I knew that but how are we going about it?" I ask. Who doesnt know what today entails.

This time its Haymitch that talks, "Well today we will be coaching you both seperately because it will be easier. In the morning you'll be with Effie and Peeta will be with me and in the afternoon you will swap over." I nod. "I was going to ask you if you wanted to be together but even though I know a lot about you both, Effie doesnt so this is an opportunity for her to get to know you better." I nod again and he leaves me be.

"So Katniss, are you going to explain to us just what was up with Peeta last night?" Effie asks and thats when I realise that she doesnt actually know anything about us and I did want to keep it from her but now its different, I still dont really like her but I like her more than I used to and if I'm gonna die then she might aswell know anyway everything that has happened.

So right there, infront of everything, I say everything that has happened over the past year. Meeting Peeta, the Bakery blowing up, Haymitch's help, the period where I refused to see Peeta and then everything that happened with Gina. I tell them everything but how Peeta actually broke his wrist, I dont think he would want me to tell them. I finish with Eric and all the problems he caused me.

I finish and then Haymitch says something. "She almost died that night. If I hadnt found her when I did, she would have died. Just a couple more minutes and she wouldnt be here." I give him a look that says shut up. Effie has tears running down her face and so does Portia.

"This thing with Peeta, he has had it as long as I've known him. Everytime something bad happens, he over-thinks. He isnt himself. When I hit my head after the Bakery fire, when I was attacked by Eric and now, its all the same. Eric was the worst though." I say and suddenly images flash through my head from that night. Erics face, the pain, the feeling of walking on air, like all the pain had gone and there was nothing. My hands begin to shake and I lose all my breathe. "Sorry." I just get out when my head starts to spin and tears fall from my eyes.

"Katniss? You okay?" Effie asks. I shake my head. There is no point in lying anymore. Thats when I start to choke. My fists balled up in my hair. I have to get these images out of my head. A hand appear on my shoulder and I jump away pretty much falling off my chair.

"Katniss, its okay, its me." I hear Peeta's voice and with my eyes closed I reach out for him and he's there. My breathing seems to go back to normal but I still cant stop shaking. How long is this going to be happening. "You shouldnt have asked her to talk about Eric, she cant deal with it, not yet." Peeta says to the rest of them as he gets me back in my chair and tries to coax me into having a drink. "I'm sorry but she thinks that she can." I know I will be able to deal with it eventually I'm just going to need time.

"Was that the guy at the reaping?" Effie asks still with tears in her eyes, I nod. "Katniss I am so sorry."

A couple hours later, I'm walking around a room in heals, being watched by Effie. I only get to sit down for about 10 minutes and thats only to see if I'm able to sit up straight. Which seems to be the only thing I can do. The heals that she gets me to practice in kill my feet and are trying to kill me as every couple of steps I almost fall on my face. I have to hold up my dress to stop from tripping over it but Effie scolds me when I pull it up too far 'not above the ankle Katniss!'. She also teaches me to smile properly as if I didnt know how to smile.

I am extremely happy when the session ends, I'm starving. The heals fly across my bedrooom as I kick them off and I storm out the room and down the hall, pulling my dress atleast upto my knees, leaving Effie where she is. Ignoring everyone at the dinner table, I grab some of the stew that I love and begin wolfing it down, causing Peeta to laugh at me. Its nice to see that he is feeling better today atleast, I take a break from eating to give him a quick kiss, realising that I havent actually kissed him today at all.

After all the food is gone, I go to my room to change out of the dress, I have half an hour before I'm meant to be with Haymitch, which gives me plenty of time. I quickly get changed and then walk back into the sitting/dining room. Everyone else is sitting at the table so I find myself on the sofa listening into their conversation not that its very interesting. I brought Peeta's book with me to read, he said it was good so why not give it a go. I think he's finished it anyway. Peeta walks over when I've got about 2 pages in and he pulls me towards him wrapping his arms around my waist. It feels so good after the eventful 24 hours that have just passed. "I'm so sorry about the way I acted last night." He says to me.

"Its okay. I'm sorry about this morning." I say back. I can feel him shaking his head as if it means nothing.

"I didnt meant to get angry at you, there was no need for that. I love you." He says, but there is something different about the 'i love you' its like a question, like he is asking for forgiveness.

"I love you too Peeta, forever." I say back and he smiles, pulling my face towards me and kissing me. For the first time since the reaping, he kisses me properly. Not just a peck like he has given me for the last week, a proper kiss. Something that I have missed so much. My fingers slide through his curly blonde hair and his hand grip my waist. I really dont want it to end but Haymitch appears at my side, stopping it. Everyone else seems to have dissapeared. "Where did everyone go?" I ask, pulling away from Peeta.

He takes a seat in his usual place. "Well Effie has gone to Peeta's room to wait for him and Cinna had to take Portia out because your little scene there upset her." I find myself laughing slightly. It feels weird to smile again. "Peeta you should get going." He gives me a quick peck and walk out, leaving me with Haymitch.

Me and Haymitch spend the next couple of hours coming up with angles for the interviews. Apparently I'm not too good at speaking, nothing like Peeta. Haymitch says he's great but of course I already knew he had a way with words and he always has. He tries asking me questions but he says that even when I tell the truth, I look like I'm lying which wont be good infront of the cameras. At the end of the session, he just tells me to make it look like I'm telling the truth and I'll be fine. Thats not very helpful though as I still dont have a clue what I am going to talk about. Maybe I could ask Peeta.

I dont actually see him again until 10 o clock when he walks into my bedroom where I'm lying in bed watching tv. I was getting really worried that we where having a replay of last night. I was just about to go and find him when he walks in looking tired. "Where were you?" I ask him, I was worried.

He looks slightly annoyed. "Haymitch passed out in the sitting room so I had to get him into bed and then Effie wanted to talk to me but I wasnt really listening to her. Then I went for a little fresh air and here I am." He smiles slightly. "Dont worry I'm fine." Thats when he looks like he's about to cry so I pull back to covers for him to get in.

"Come here." I mumble, wanting him in bed beside me. He begins walking to the bed, pulling off his shoes and pants as he goes. He slides into the bed beside me and does something he has never done before, he pulls me towards him and curls up into me with his head on my chest, like I do with him. My hands find his hair and eventually he falls asleep.

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 **So what do you all reckon is up with Peeta, could he be planning something? Or could he just be trying to sort his head out. REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!**


	9. Chapter 9

**I know I've been inactive for a while and that's because of work and college so I'm sorry. But here it is the next chapter. Enjoy :)**

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9.

I wake up the next day to the sound of someone whispering my name. I turn to the side expecting it to be Peeta who is now lying on his pillow with one arm draped over me but its not its my prep team, standing at the end of my bed. "Katniss, you awake?" Flavius asks and I nod. Peeta wakes up slightly and pulls me towards him like he does all the time when he wakes up. Then he falls back into sleep and I find myself laughing. My prep team have such weird looks on their faces, their eyes pretty much light up.

"Whats going on?" I ask them, my mind going blank. "What time is it?"

This time Octavia speaks. "Its the interviews today dear, we need to get you prepped and its about 7am. Haymitch and Effie are up and eating their breakfast, Peeta's prep team wont be by for another 2 hours." That means I'll be spending the next couple of hours being poked and waxed whilst Peeta gets to stay in bed. I sigh and pull myself away from him, waking him up like I thought I was going to.

"Where you going?" He asks in his tired voice which by the way is the most sexy and attractive thing about him. "What time is it?" His eyes open slightly.

"Its too early for you to be awake but I've got to go and get prepped." I motion towards my prep team before he tries to pull me back under the covers and things get extra awkward.

He smiles slightly in their direction, acknowledging them for the first time this morning. "Good morning." He says, pulling his head up off the pillow, his hair sticking up in every direction possible, the look of it makes me laugh, it always has. If he was Rye he would already be running to the bathroom.

"Good Morning Peeta, is it okay if we steal your girlfriend?" Flavius asks. "Dont worry she will be returned safely." He laughs and Peeta laughs along with him.

"She better be or you and me are having words." Everyone laughs again and I reach down to kiss Peeta before following my Prep Team out the door for some breakfast.

I'm only sitting at the breakfast table for 10 minutes before Peeta joins us, now dressed and his hair still looking a mess. "Couldnt go back to sleep." He whispers to me when he takes his seat. My prep team dont stay long so it just ends up being Me, Peeta, Haymitch and Effie as Cinna and Portia are probably off putting the last touches to whatever we will be wearing.

"Right, remember everything that we talked about yesterday and I'm sure you will do just fine." Haymitch says. "Today is the last day before the games and one of the most important as today the Capitol will finally get a read on you, they will finally get to know who you are and above all things, everyone wants to know all about you two, the star-crossed lovers from District 12. How you met, about your life, if you ever planned on getting married, how you feel about all this stuff. Just dont forget to only say things that wont upset the Capitol. After your scores everyone is interested by you but the Capitol are feeling threatened and the last thing you need to do now is make it worse." I find myself nodding. I realised that they would want to know about me and Peeta.

Peeta sighs. "So, we have to lie?" Haymitch cocks his head to the side slightly, not really understanding. "You know, with everything they want to know. We definitely cant tell the truth about how we feel about it and I know I speak for both me and Katniss when I say that we dont want them to know what we have been through. It took us long enough to tell Effie, let alone people we've never even talked to." Now Haymitch is nodding.

"Look kid, thats the only thing you can do. Just make sure they remember you. You need this." He says and I'm nodding again as Effie says its time to go. I give Peeta a quick kiss and let Effie lead me to the elevator. I'm not entirely sure why she still does it, its not like I dont know where it is.

Prepping seems to take longer than normal. Unlike last time they skip out all the waxing and stuff, they just do under my arms and my eyebrows again. Other than that its clothes and make-up. By the time I'm done, I'm sore and annoyed and all I want is to be in bed but instead I have to go through all this interview stuff. Hopefully it goes really fast.

I'm standing, looking in the mirror, all ready for the interviews, with Cinna standing behind me. My dress is unlike anything else that I have ever worn in my life. Its a floor length red dress that shimmers in the light. Its beautiful. Gems are spread up my right arm added to the dress. Cinna has done a simple braided updo with my hair and natural make-up but I guess all the look is in my dress. I dont look like me, I look completely different, like a girl with my thoughts that isnt me. I could have never pulled this off a couple months ago. I'm not pretty, I am not beautiful, I am as radiant as the sun.

Thats when I notice Cinna watching me and I remember that I actually have something to ask him. "Cinna, you know the boots that me and Peeta where wearing at the reaping?" He nods. "Do you reckon we would be able to wear them in the arena?"

"I'm not sure because I dont know what the outfit will be like yet but I could ask someone about it. I'll have to get back to you." I nod in thanks and he pulls himself up. "Should we get going?"

Before I know it, its just me and Peeta, everyone else has already been up on the stage and we have been holding hands for a very long time. I can feel myself shaking as Thresh steps off the stage, showing that its my turn. A man with a black suit and an ear piece shows up behind me and I let go of Peeta's hand, ready to mount the stage as Caesar is introducing me. I turn back at him just as he blows me a kiss and then I'm pulled round a corner and flooded with lights. The crowd start to cheer and a man in a blue suit shows up at me side. His hair is exactly the same colour of his suit and it is none other than Ceasar Flickerman.

"Katniss Everdeen." He says as he leads me towards the seat at the front of the stage. "So, the Capitol, must be very different to District 12, tell me... what do you like the most?" He asks and I feel my mouth go dry and my head go blank.

What can I say? I need to say something. I can feel hundreds of eyes on me. Ceasars white smile is waiting for an answer and the whole room has fallen quiet, just the occassional click of the camera rails. I quickly say something not letting it process. "The Lamb stew."

"The one with the dried plums?" Ceasar asks and I nod. "I can see what you mean, I eat that by the bucket load, I think its finally taking his toll. Coud hardly get in my suit this morning." He laughs and the audience reassures him that he looks fine. "Anyway, when you came out in that chariot at the opening ceremonies, my heart stopped." He watches me.

"So did mine." I reply with the best fake laugh I can muster.

"Tell me about the flames, where they real?" He asks and thats finally a question I know the answer to.

I find Cinna in the crowd and he smiles. "Yes..." Then Cinna notions his head. Its time to show them. "Infact I'm wearing them today would you like to see?"

"Is it safe?" He asks and I find myself actually laughing. I nod. "Well go ahead."

I pull myself up and stand away from him, putting my arms out and spinning. The reaction is almost immediate. The startled shouts, the screams, the cries and eventually the applause. The cameras are moving like crazy now as I hear constant clicking. When I stop Ceasar asks for me to do it again so I do but I get too dizzy and when he tells me not to stop I have to sit down.

"So... tell me about your training score... El-ev-en?" He asks, poking himself in the knee when he said every syllable of the word eleven.

I look up to the game-makers on the balcony. I know I'm not meant to say anything, so I dont. I know that it will probably make it harder for me to keep Peeta alive in the arena if I did say. I'm already a target, I dont want to make Peeta a target.

"I guess all I can say is that it was probably a first." He nods, obviously thinking I mean the score.

Then he takes me hand and his face turns serious so I brace myself. "The next question is about the reaping." I nod. "Can you tell me about your sister?"

I take a breathe and picture her on a normal day, feeding lady or petting Buttercup. "She's only twelve and doesnt deserve to go into the games. I love her more than anything." I say, looking back at him again.

"And what about Mr Mellark? His volunteering must have shook you up a bit." He says.

"To tell you the truth Ceasar I was very angry at first. I hated him for what he did. I still hate him now but I've got used to it and I'm just trying to spend every possible minute of the rest of my life with him." Ceasar smiles and the crowd breaks into 'Awws'.

Thats when the buzzer sounds, scaring me half to death. "Well, Miss Katniss Everdeen, it looks like our time is up but I speak for us all when I say good luck out there." He smiles and I see a tinge of sadness in there which is something you hardly ever see from anyone to do with the games. I shake his hand and walk off the other end of the stage to join Haymitch and Effie to watch Peeta's interview.

He walks on stage looking strong and confident. More so than I did. Ceasar shakes his hand and they take a seat, the crowds cheering dying down. "Ahh, Peeta Mellark, how are you?" Caesar asks him.

"I'm great Caesar, how are you?" You can tell Peeta already has the audience wrapped around his finger. It lifts a bit weight off my shoulders, this way atleast he can get some sponsors.

"I'm grand Peeta, Im grand." Caesar replies, slapping on the shoulder like Rye does to him, like they have been great friends for years. "So how are you finding the Capitol? And dont say with a map." The audience laughs.

"Its different, very different than back home." Peeta says looking out of the crowd.

"In what way?"

"Well, the showers here are weird." Thats when he looks back at Caesar and the camera zooms in on him. A smile is plastered on his face but he doesnt look too happy.

"Showers? We have different showers?" Caesar asks with a laugh.

"Yeh, tell me Caesar do I smell like roses to you?" Peeta leans in towards Caesar waiting for him to smell him and hesitantly Caesar does.

He makes a sound of approval and smiles. "Do- Do I smell like roses?" Peeta doesnt hesitate.

"Well, you definitely smell better than I do." Peeta says, pulling back and nodding at him.

"Well, I've lived here longer."

"That makes sense." Both of them sit back and then laughter fills the room.

When it finally dies down, Caesar starts again. "So Peeta about the lovely Miss Everdeen." Peeta looks at him but the smile has faded from his face. Realising that he is on camera he quickly gains it again. "How long have you known her?"

Peeta stops for a second as if debating wether to lie or tell the truth and then he speaks. "I've known her for 11 years but we've only been friends for almost a year now. We've been dating for about 3 months."

Caesars smile has grown wide now, you can tell he is definitely one for a love story. "And how did you become friends a year ago?"

He doesnt even lie when he tells him. "She saved me and my entire family when our bakery went up in flames, she also got seriously hurt in the process and will never be the same ever again and I feel so guilty about that because what happened was my fault. Since then we have gone through a lot together and we where always by eachothers side. A couple of weeks ago when I broke my wrist." He holds up his bandaged wrist. "Her and her family helped me again and I owe them my life. I wouldnt have been able to get through this past year if I didnt have her by my side. I love her with all my heart." His smile has faded and he all of a sudden looks quite depressed.

Caesar isnt smiling either and the whole crowd has fallen silent. Once again all you can hear is the clicking of the cameras. "Wow... Well it breaks mine and all of our hearts that you will both be going into this arena Mr Mellark. I wish you and Miss Everdeen all the very best of luck." They give eachother a smile as the buzzer goes off and he begins his descent off stage.

As I turn and see him coming down the stairs I realise I have tears in my eyes. He sees me and smiles, pulling me to him when I cry even more. I bury my face in his shoulders, letting the sound of my sobs take over. Thats when I realise just how loud the sound is. I turn to see the where the sound is coming from. It turns out that the screen I was watching had a camera on it and is now broadcasting this to all of Panem. "Come on lets go." I say and grab Peeta's hand pulling him towards the elevator, quickly followed by Haymitch and Effie.

That night we eat dinner in silence and then watch the recap of the interviews. I'm sitting next to Peeta and Cinna. Portia sits on the other side of Peeta and Effie and Haymitch sit in their normal chairs. I'm actually really scared to watch my interview as I probably made a fool out of myself. But another thing is taking over my mind. Peeta. What he said today made me realise that I cant break up with him. It going to put us both off in the arena and I cant have that. We are going to have to deal with the pain if it comes to it. Right now we need to stay together.

The interview go by really fast and it shows the tributes walking off the stage. When it gets to me you can see the fear in my face. My interview goes by quickly an Peeta is up. Him and Caesar laugh and when they show him coming from the stage they leave the camera on to show me and him hugging. You can see the tears visible on my face when I pull away from him to look at the camera. My make up has run everywhere.

When the tv turns off we all sit there for a while. Tomorrow me and Peeta are going into the arena. Haymitch and Effie won't be there in the morning so we have to say goodbye now before we go to bed. Me an Peeta stand up first. Someone had to stand up first I guess. I feel the tears in my eyes. Tonight I will be saying goodbye to not only the man who has been a very good friend this past year but the only 3 people In the Capitol who actually wormed their way inside me.

Peeta takes my hand and I talk. "I want you all to know what a privilege It is to have known you all and we all know that the odds of either me or Peeta comin out of this alive are very low, Effie, Cinna, Portia, we might not have known you for a long time but you sure have helped us through this past week and I thank you for it." The tears are falling down my face now as I turn to Haymitch. "Haymitch, since you let us all stay at your house a year ago, you've been a very good friend to me and what you have done for me, no-one has treated me like that since my father died and you made me feel like I had a realy family again. Along with the Mellarks. Dont forget that." He nods at me and I lean into Peeta, needing his comfort.

I feel his voice rumble through his chest as he speaks. "I feel the same. If I had to have anybody as my team in district 12 I'm glad it was you lot. Sure we didnt know you long but you all definitely made a big impact on me."

"Katniss, Peeta I have been glad to be your escort." Effie says with tears streaming down her face. We both give her a hug. She leaves the room and we move on to Portia and Cinna. I give a still crying Portia a hug. "Thank you Portia, I know I didn't know you that well but thank you anyway" I hug her and move away. Her and cinna leave the room.

We walk up to Haymitch. "Any last advice" I ask him.

"Yeh, as soon as that gong sounds I want you both to get the hell out of there. Find water." He says very seriously.

"And after that?" Peeta asks.

"Stay alive." His face twists into a smile and I throw my arms around him which I'm guessing by now he knows that I dont normally do and after a bit of hesitation his wrpas his arms around my tightly.

"Thank you Haymitch." I say into his shoulder. "For everything."

"I want you both to try your hardest in there." He says once I pull away from him. "I know what it's like and it will not be easy at all."

"Thanks Haymitch." Peeta gives a small hug and a pat on the back.

My eyes fall to the bracelet that is on my wrist, the one that I got off Haymitch and Peeta. I cant take it into the arena. Even if I could I wouldnt because I wouldnt trust mysef to not lose it. If I die, I want Prim to have it. "Haymitch I want you to do something for me?" I ask glancing towards Peeta then back at Haymitch.

"Anything sweatheart." He says with a nod.

I'm crying even more now, "If I don't make it back I want you to give this to Prim?" I hand him the bracelet and he looks down at it and I see a tear escape his eye. I think it just hit him that we might not be coming back.

"I promise you I will." I nod as he wraps both of his hands around the bracelet.

"Thank you Haymitch for everything."

"Your welcome now you better get to bed."

We walk away and Haymitch watches us go still holding out the bracelet I just handed him. I have to try and keep the tears away but I just cant help it and I cant look back either, I dont think Haymitch actually realised how much he meant to us.

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 **Thanks for reading :) Really hope you liked it. Please leave a review to let me know what you thought about this chapter!**


	10. Chapter 10

**10.**

We're just walking down the hallway to go to bed when Peeta stops me dead. "Katniss, I know we need sleep before tomorrow but how about we go up to the roof for a bit?" He asks me and I dont hesitate to nod. It will be nice to spend some time with Peeta before tomorrow. I probably wont see him much in the morning so now is all we have. "I'll meet you up there, I'm just gonna get changed." I nod and leave him at my bedroom as I make my way up to the roof. It's colder than it was the other night.

I walk over to the front and look out over the Capitol. There is a party going on in the streets outside the training centre. The interviews are on. My face flashes up a couple of times and Peetas does aswell. When they show out hug the crowd goes Berzerk, shouting and screaming.

I move away from the balcony and lean my back against the wall. The tears come heavily and I try to stop them but I cant. As I'm standing there looking out over the Capitol and crying, someone speaks behind me. "Katniss, you alright?" Its Peeta. I nod, standing where I am. "We need to talk about something." He is no at my side. Wht could he possibly want to talk about?

"Whats up?" I ask him, my face still cast out at the Capitol citizens.

He sighs. He only does that when there is something wrong. "It us. You have been acting strange, distant." Thats when I look at him. "I talked to Haymitch. I know what you want. You want to break up?"

I begin to shake my head but he isnt taking it. "Maybe its for the best. If you dont want to be with me anymore, then its for the best. You've been different since the reaping and I know its not the Eric thing because I know you Katniss, you're not yourself. This breaks my heart Katniss but I cant be in a relatioship with you if you dont love me as much as I love you. I love you so much and its because I love you that I cant be selfish with you. If you want your space then I understand, now more than ever."

"Peeta, you dont understand-" I try but he stops me.

"No, Katniss I do understand." His temper seems to be rising now. "You've been like this for ages. You could have atleast had the descency to tell me instead of stringing me along like you did." His face has turned hard now and there are tears in his eyes.

"I wasnt stringing you along, I loved you and I still love you as much as I always have, maybe even more." I say to him, reaching out to touch his face but he steps back. "Peeta..."

"Dont Katniss." Then he walks off, through the door. I do the only thing that should be done and I follow him. He's already at the bottom of the stairs when I reach the top and before I know it he has disappeared into his bedroom, locking the door behind him.

"Peeta!" I shout, banging on the door. "Just hear me out please?" I ask, tears streaming down my face. He doesnt say anything. "Please." I ask, my voice breaking. I can hear the sound of him sobbing on the other side of the door. "Fine, I'll see you tomorrow." Then I walk away and into the sitting room, to cry. Haymitch is still sitting in the same place we left him.

"Hey Sweetheart whats up?" He asks me and I fall onto the sofa, curling up into a ball and crying.

"Peeta B-Broke up with me..." I mumble. He falls silent for a minute, obviously not knowing what to say, there isnt really much to say to be honest.

"Its okay, its gonna be okay." He says even though both of us know thats definitely not true. We are going into the games tomorrow, even if where still together it wouldnt be okay. Of course it woudnt, how could it be? One of us is going to die, or both of us. Maybe it would be better if we did both die. I feel the sofa dip just where my feet are and Haymitch's hand is stroking down my arm, attempting to comfort me.

"None of this is going to be okay Haymitch. Nothing will ever be okay again." I say, still allowing the tears to stream from my eyes.

We sit in silence for a while, the only sound being my cries, until Haymitch speaks up again. "I think its about time we went to bed Katniss. Big day tomorrow."

"Yeh, I guess your right." I reply, pulling myself up into a sitting postion, making no attempt to make myself look at all presentable. Haymitch has definitely seen me in worse condition than this.

I look at him and then down at his hands as I can see him messing with something. My bracelet. Why is he still holding it? "Why do you still have that Haymitch?" I expected him to have put it in his room, not to still have it on him.

"No reason." He says, looking away from me, obviously lying.

"No, tell me." I insist.

He lets out a shaky breathe and finally speaks, not looking at me at all. "Ok, well I'm gonna deny that I ever said this but... You and Peeta, I've got to know you this past year and you've become part of my life. For the past 24 years, since Snow killed my family, I have had no-one and then all of a sudden, you and the Mellarks where sprung on me because I felt a bit of pity over the fact that they had nowhere to go to heal and my life changed. Every day I worry about who is going to come out of that arena, I want you to promise me that atleast one of you will come out?" I find myself crying again when he looks at me. I lean into him, giving him a slight hug. Something I have never actually done. Sure I've hugged him but this one actually shows care and love. "I carry this around because for all I know this could be the last thing left over from both you and Peeta if the worse happens."

"I promise that one of us will come out." I hope to get Peeta out but Haymitch doesnt need to know.

"Thank you Katniss." He squeezes me once, quickly and then he pulls away quickly wiping his tears away as if nothing ever happened. "Now get to bed. I'll see you in the morning before you leave."

I leave him there playing with the bracelet and I go to my bedroom. Something in me kind of expects Peeta to be there, like he would have come by to say sorry or to take me back into his arms and kiss me but no, the room is cold and empty. I feel the tears in my eyes again at the thought of spending tonight of all times alone but there isnt really much I can do about that.

* * *

 **I'm sorry about this chapter and I'm sorry its so short but the games are in the next chapter and Hopefully this thing with Katniss and Peeta wont last long. Lets hope everything turns out well for The Star-crossed Lovers from District 12.**


	11. Chapter 11

**The next instalment of my story The Feeling:Wicked Game. Hope you like it :D**

* * *

 **11.**

Last night was a really hard night for me. My mind was full of a mixture of things. Mostly Peeta. Sometimes it was Eric, what he did to me and how he got away with it. I didnt know at first why he had come into my head until I realised that ever since I shut myself in my house because of that PTSD, I have stayed in a bed with Peeta because that was the only way I felt safe. The one exception was the night before the Reaping but I had Prim. Now its just me, in a silent dark room with just my thoughts. I dont know how Peeta is dealing with all this. His mind it probably realing with the thought of the games.

Around 8am when I have been awake for a totel of 6 hours, Cinna comes into my room and stands right at the side of my bed without even saying anything. I still have tears in my eyes and have no desire to wipe them away. "Haymitch told me. How are you?" He asks. I try to say something back to him but just come up with more tears. "Lets go have breakfast."

He leeds me out the door but just as I do, I bump straight into Portia, standing at Peeta's open bedroom door. We share a look for a second before Peeta walks out of his room groaning about sleep. "Could I not just stay in bed for another hour P-" Then he sees me and his face drops. "Hi..."

"Hi..." I reply, using my voice for the first time today. "You got any sleep last night?" I ask him.

"No, I was up on the roof most of the night, You?"

"Of course not." I reply. Cinna starts pulling me in the other direction and I have time to give Peeta a quick nod and a goodbye, 'I'll see you later, I guess', before I'm pulled round the corner and to the elevator.

At breakfast, me and Cinna talk about what the arena could be like but obviously neither of us have a clue so we talk about past arenas and what I might expect in there. There seems to be a lot, scaring me more than I was actually scared, surprisingly. He does his best to keep my calm but on a day like this who would be able to stay calm?

He gives up and we walk for the hovercraft instead. Inside, there is a woman with a great big surringe which doesnt help the whole being calm thing. "Whats that?" I ask her, my voice shaking.

"Your tracker." Then without asking she grabs my arm and pushes the surringe in. It doesnt hurt much surprisingly. Thats when the shaking starts to set in. All morning, I've been pushing it aside, the fact that I could be dead tomorrow. I guess Peeta breaking up with me last night was a pretty good distraction because thats all I've been able to think about. I dont know why I ever thought that breaking up with him would have been a good idea. Now that we are broken up, I feel like this arena is going to be harder because I'll be battling not just with the other tributes, but my emotions aswell. Plus, Peeta could very well die at the cornucorpia and the last time I actually talked to him would have been our break up.

The ride in the hovercraft lasts about half an hour, which I spend most of just staring out the window at the Capitol below, that is until the windows go black when we leave the Capitol becaue no-one is allowed to know where the actual arena is.

When we are dropped inside a little room under the Cornucorpia, Cinna starts to help me into my clothes. They arent anything special but Cinna mentions that because of the thermal lining in the jacket that the arena must be cold, or atleast at night. Also with the kind of boots, there must be some kind of woods involved. That I'm glad about because then I can climb a tree to get away from someone. I might be able to run fast but you never know, someone from one of the Career districts might be able to run faster than me. That is what Haymitch told me the other night when I told him that I could run to the cornucorpia because im fast but he told me not the risk it. I can see his point now.

He doesnt give me the boots that are provided though. He smiles and pulls another pair out of the a box under the random desk in the room and a tear escapes my eye. The boots I got for my birthday off Peeta's family. He remembered which means that Peeta will be wearing the same one. Atleast I can feel like I'm with him. Then he attaches Madge's Mockingjay to my jacket and I'm ready.

"How did you know that it was my token?" I ask him. I dont even think anyone knew I had it.

"Well actually I didnt. I thought the bracelet was but considering you gave it back to Haymitch I thought you might like this one. I found it on your dress, figured you would want atleast something from home." I smile and wrap my arms around him.

We just kind of hold onto eachother until the woman's voice comes through the speaker with 2 words, "20 Seconds." He nods at me once and leads me to the tube. When the tube slides shut, my heart skips a beat and I have to close my eyes to calm myself down. When I open them again, I see Cinna looking at me he nods again and I nod back as the platform begins to move and light floods my vision. This is it.

As my vision returns, I see tributes. As I look through them, I see Peeta, he's looking right back at me. This is my chance to tell him incase something happens. "I love you." I mouth and his face softens slightly.

"I love you too." I get from him and then it starts.

"Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to the 74th Hunger Games, May the Odds be ever in your favour." And then the count down begins.

PEETA POV

60 Seconds, thats how long I am required to stand on this platform for, unless I want to be blown to pieces. I look around the tributes. Some are ready to run, like the Careers, others look confused, but thats mostly just the ones behind the cornucorpia which I can understand because they literallt have no idea what is in the cornucorpia because they cant see it.

I find Katniss again, she isnt looking at me this time, she is looking at the cornucorpia. I follow her line of vision and find a bow, neatly leaning against one of the boxes. She's gonna go for it. The count down says 5 and I look back at her. Luckily this time she sees me and I shake my head, her stance changes just as the gong sounds. I turn and sprint towards the woods, stopping at a tree and watching the horror unfold. People everywhere are getting slaughtered. I could already hear the screams as I was running away.

I see Katniss, in the middle of all the horror, she jumps off her pedestal and sets off for the cornucorpia. "Katniss!" I shout and then clamp my and over my mouth when I realised what I have done. I'm about to go in after her, but then she grabs a backpack and turns to come back. Then a knife flies past her. The District 2 girl, Clove has her in her sights and is aiming to kill. Her second knife goes but Katniss catches it with her backpack and sets off running again for the woods. She isnt far from me, I can follow her, so I run in the direction she went.

KATNISS POV

Once I'm far enough away from the Cornucorpia, I find a rock and search through my bag, getting my breathe back from all the running. Just as I open my bag, the cannons start, making me jump. All togther I count 11. Which means, 11 dead at the cornucorpia and 13 alive. I send out a silent prayer for Peeta even though I saw him run off. I suppose I'll be able to see if its him tonight in the sky anyway. I'm about to look through my bag again when I hear rustling. Someone's found me. Run.

I throw my back round my shoulders, ignoring the fact that its still open and scale the first tree in record time. I can still hear the rustling but no-one has emerged. It must be an animal or something. Then I see blonde hair and a boot come from the trees. "You here?" The person whispers and I let out a shaky breath. Its Peeta. He walks off in the other direction whispering my name. I know I need to stop him so I start to climb down. As I'm going after him, I hear voices, I recognise Cato and I run, they've found us. I jump in a large bush to my right. I dont know where Peeta is but I hope he is hiding. Thats when I notice his eyes emerge in the bush across from me, just as the Careers round the corner laughing about something. I dont think Peeta knows I'm here and within seconds he has dissapeared. I cant see him anymore. I start to panic, where has he gone?

The Careers dissapear and I get out of the bush but Peeta definitely isnt in his so I walk round the back of it and plan to set off walking behind it because that is the only way he could have gone without me seeing him. "Katniss." Someone whispers and I know it as Peeta so I spin around. It came from behind me. "Up here." I look up to see him sitting on a large tree trunk up high in the tree. I wasnt even aware that he could climb. I smile and let out a breath.

"Wait there, I'm coming up." I hear the Careers again, they must have turned around so I quickly scale the tree and end up on the trunk below Peeta and we both hold our breath as they go past again. "I think they're gone." I say and hear Peeta let out a breath. I'm about to say something to him but no words come out so I just hoist myself up onto his branch and pull him into my arms.

"I am so sorry about last night. I love you so much." He says to me and I feel a great weight lift off my shoulders. "I dont know why I did it, I shouldnt have. I got out of bed this morning regretting it so much. I just havent been sleeping properly and I jumped to conclusions. I'm really sorry. Can you ever forgive me?"

I pull away from him with tears in my eyes. "There is nothing to forgive." I say and kiss him. "Anyway, since when could you climb?" I ask him, a little proud.

"Dont laugh but I was trying to impress you so I have been learning to climb up the tree in my back garden, I was so bad at first, I even had Rye teach me a little and he is terrible at climbing trees." I smile at him and I can see Rye laughing at him in my head.

"I am so proud of you and I think if training is anything to go off I can now kick your butt at wrestling." I say and he begins to laugh.

"No-one can win against me. I let you win." His eyeborws cocks up and he smiles his crooked, sarcastic smile. I dont know how I ever thought that I would be able to break up with him at first because how could I ever spend any of my life without him?

"You afraid of being beaten by a girl?"

"I'm maybe a little bit afraid of being beaten by my girlfriend, whos younger than me, and a lot smaller than me." He laughs and I cant help but laugh along.

"You know I'm only a couple months younger than you right?"

"Whatever."

The rest of the day we just stay up in that tree, looking through what stuff I have and talking. At one point I get down and set a couple traps around the area whilst Peeta watches out from above.

Eventually we fall asleep, high up in the tree, our belts tied togther and around the tree to stop us from falling off, plus a rope that I found in my bag for extra support. His arms are wrapped around me and mine around him and regardless of the uncomfortable sleeping bag and the wind and hard tree trunk underneath us, it feels good to be in his arms once again. Once he falls asleep though, I cant stop thinking about the past 24 hours, I have experienced what it is like to live without him. Before I saw him when I was sat up in the tree, he could have been dead. What if by some miracle I actually make it out of this and back home. He will have to die and I will have to live without him until I die. No-one would be able to live without Peeta Mellark because he is honestly the most amazing person in Panem.

* * *

 **So they didn't stay broken up for long. :) Leave me a review to tell me what you thought.**


	12. Chapter 12

**12**

I was having a really good dream about the Bakery and my mother and my sister but all of a sudden I'm being shook awake. "Katniss, you have to get up, quickly theres a fire!" The first thing that runs through my head is that the Bakery has gone up in flames again and I expect to hear sirens over Peeta's voice but instead I hear the sound of a tree fall and the tree we are in rumbles on impact. Its close. My eyes shoot open to see the forest we set up camp last night, the first night of the games. "Come on we have to get out of here."

We get down from the tree quick enough and set off running. I'm not sure where we are going but hopefully its away from this fire. The fire I notice has become a wall behind us. Clearly made by the Game-Makers. Why would they want us to go this way though? It cant be good but at the end of that day anything has to be better than burning to death.

Peeta is ahead of me running for his life. I know I could run faster than him but he has to be infront of me. I have to be able to keep an eye on him. "Katniss! Come on!"

I spin around to see how close the wall of fire is and as I do so, my legs bump into something and I trip, falling on my front. "Katniss, you okay?" Peeta asks from behind me. It was him I fell over. He's leaning forward trying to catch his breath. "Go. Its getting closer." He says trying to push me forward.

I grab his hand and run as fast as I can. I can see a hill coming up that goes down. If I can get us to that fast enough we could both jump down and atleast get far ahead of the fire if not miss is completely. But Peeta stops again about 3 metres away from it. "I cant keep running. My lungs cant take it." Ever since the Bakery fire his lungs have never be the same. My mother gave him some kind of spray to take whenever it gets bad but obviously he doesnt have it in here.

"Its just another couple of feet Peeta, you can do it." His eyes start to glaze over and suddenly I'm thrown back to that night when I woke up to the sound of him choking. The exact sound he is making now. "Peeta, you okay?" I ask but he doesnt reply. Hi body goes limp just as a fireball is thrown from the fire wall missing us only because Peeta fell taking me with him.

In seconds I'm back on my feet and dragging him over to the hill. I had forgotten how heavy he actually was. "We are not going to give up now!" I shout to no-one, tears streaming down my face at the sight of a passed out Peeta. Looking ahead down the hill once I get there, I choose the safest path and roll Peeta down. He lands safely at the bottom so I get ready to go myself.

Well that is until anothe fireball descends and hits me in the leg. My body jolts and I fall down the wrong path, where the rocks are down the hill, hitting just about every single one. Each one like a knife the stomach every single time. When I get to the bottom, I feel like I could just lie there and sleep but a voice in my head that sounds so much like Prim tells me to keep going. So thats what I do.

Peeta seems to be just waking up when I get to him and I pull him up before setting off running again. "What happened?" He shouts to me as I drag him along. "I just remember the fire."

"You passed out. We have to keep going. I'll explain later." Soon enough my feet hit water and I collapse into it. Every single cut I have brings pain. Peeta follows me in and grabs me as I feel my head start going under water.

"Are you okay? What happened?" He asks, getting his breathe back. "You're covered in blood. I didnt realise that the rocks had caused that much damaged.

I close my eyes, wrapped in his embrace and the sweet release of the water. "I had to get you down the hill somehow. I fell."

He just holds me, trying to get some of the blood off my clothes. That is until we hear voices and sik further into the water. "There they are!" Someone shouts and Peeta starts dragging me once again out of the water and back into the woods that not look exactly as they did before the fire. The trees that where fallen before are back standing up. My eyes shoot back and see all the careers running behind us.

Next thing I know, I'm waking up to a stinging feeling in my leg. "Sorry." I hear Peeta say and when I finally open my eyes, he is sitting infront of me pouring water on my leg. "You okay? You've been asleep for a while."

I nod. "Where are we?" I notice how we are suddenly sat up in a tree. How the hell did he get me up here? and what is going on? "What happened with the Careers?" I remember them chasing us through the forest.

"Well, we where at the lake and they found us, when they where chasing us you pretty much passed out on me so I kept you awake long enough to get up a tree where you collapsed on the tree trunk, this one to be precise. Luckily we where high enough to keep away from them." He points down and I see the 2 District 2 Tributes, the 2 District 1 tributes but only the girl from 4. They all seem to have fallen asleep and by the look of the District 1 girl, how she is sat up against another tree, she was meant to keep watch but didnt do a very good job. "You lost a lot of blood. I went down and back to the lake to get water once they had all fallen asleep. I only just got back actually and found this off Haymitch." He holds up a little silver tub. "Its burn cream. He didnt send anything for the cuts and I am very useless at this kind of thing." He laughs and I help him get a bandage around one of my bad cuts on my arm. He must have got the bandage from the medic kit in my bag. "Now I'm gonna go and get more water. Are you alright?" I nod and watch him as he goes down.

I smile as he is about to walk away and wave to him but then his face drops as someone grabs his ankle. Cato. None of the others are awake just him, the worst of all. Peeta quickly gets him off and runs off for the forest. "Peeta!" I shout but he's already out of ear shot and I end up waking the rest of them up.

HAYMITCH POV

The screen is split in 2, katniss on one side talking to the careers under the tree and the other side with Peeta on. Peeta has made it up the lake but Cato has caught him so they now just stand there looking at eachother, waiting for the other to actually make a move.

Cato laughs at him. "Feel like a run did we?" He asks. On Peeta's screen, his heart rate starts to sore. He's scared. Come on Peeta, you can beat him. If only he could get close enough.

"Well, you've got to keep in shape." Peeta says, giving it straight back to him. Its nice to see he hasnt lost his Mellark shine.

Thats whe Cato changes the conversation to Katniss. The one thing that is going to hurt Peeta more than Cato's spear could ever. "I thought you would like to be the first to know that Marvel is killing Katniss as we speak." Cato says with a smile on his face.

Now its Peeta's turn to laugh. "Katniss is so much smarter than him and beside's wheres the sound of the Cann-" He's cut off by a loud cannon sound. My heart begins to race and I look at Katniss' screen to see her safe in the tree still, worry on her face at the sound of the cannon.

"I guess that didnt take very long. She's obviously not as smart as you thought." Cato says. His sword spinning around in his hand.

"I'm going to kill you if you have done anything to her." I her Peeta say with anger in his voice. He's getting closer to Cato now.

"Peeta don't do anything stupid." I mumble to the screen. A few other mentors look at me. Effie grabs my arm as we both sit there with our eyes glued to the screen. I take a swig of my drink but Effie takes it off me before I have a chance to take another and downs the remainder of my drink, then holding it up for the Avox to take, she holds up 2 fingers to say she wants 2 drinks and we both look at the screen again.

They are still just standing there looking at eachother. "Well too bad your girlfriend is dead, looks like its your turn now. Tell her I said hi."

Peeta lunges at the larger male to the floor, knocking his sword out of his hand and his fist collides with ato's jaw, a cry of pain falling from his lips. "I will tell her you said hi. Because she's still alive and you're the one thats going to die." Peeta spits in his face. Honestly I've never even seen him act like this except from with Eric.

That clearly angers Cato and he kicks Peeta staright in the hip and he falls of Cato and backwards, hitting the floor hard. I stand up out of my chair in anxiety. "Peeta get up!" I shout. Cato is now standing over him with his sword ready. This can not be how Peeta dies.

"Ready to die lover boy?" Cato asks, blood coming from his nose but a smile still on his face at the though of killing Peeta.

Peeta kicks the sword out of Catos hand and jumps up catching his breathe. That fall must have winded him. The smile from Cato's face dissapears and all thats left is anger which is nowhere near good. Cato lunges for his sword. Peeta goes for it aswell but Cato gets there first. He pick up of the ground and turns towards Peeta. The sword hitting flesh and I hear Effie yelp really loudly.

Peeta screams out in pain and falls to the ground. His leg is already gushing with blood. The sword must have only gone through his leg but by the look of it, its hit his bone. Which definitely isnt good. Cato is once again stood over Peeta, sword in hand. This time Peeta can't do anything.

"No!" I shout. Effie lets out a little whimper. I feel one single tear come down my cheek. This is it the boys gonna die.

Peeta's face doesnt change though, he still looks strong. "Go on do it I can be with her." He says with a small smile on his face as he looks up at the person who is probably going to kill him.

Cato begins shaking his head. He's not going to kill him. "No instead maybe I'll let you bleed to death." Then he starts walking away, leaving Peeta on the stone floor by the lake.

"Coward!" Peeta shouts through the woods but Cato doesnt say anything he just walks off laughing. I see his head drop to the floor as he cries out in pain.

(KATNISS POV)

After Cato left the Careers didnt do anything to get my attention. I'm glad about that, I wish Peeta would come back though. I guess he cant though now that they are all awake. A canon went off earlier and I can't help but think that it was Peeta.

Cato comes back . He has blood all over his face and coming out his nose. I guess he ran into Peeta. I smile for a second until I realise that if he was back then something has happened to Peeta.

"Where lover boy did you find him?" Marvel asks from down below.

Cato nods, wiping some of his blood of his face with his sleave. "Yeh I found him and he wishes I hadnt."

"Did you kill him?" Marvel asks. They all seem to be getting excited now.

"No I left him to die. Cut his leg up high. Really deep, he will bleed to death in a few days."

Peeta is out there and injured. I need to get out of here and find him. I don't know how though I cant move with them down there.


	13. Chapter 13

**13**

I didnt find sleep last night but can you really blame me? Peeta could die any moment, I stayed awake all night to hear for a cannon that could be him. I just sat here in my sleeping bag staring out the way that Peeta dissapeared. The Careers below found sleep which I'm glad about I dont think I could have listened to them talk about what they are going to do when they get out of here alive for another second.

Then I hear something. "Psssst" Its quiet but its there, so I follow the sound and find the little girl from district 11. For a while we hold eachothers gaze. Then without even rustling a leaf she lifts up her little hand and points to something above my head.

I look up at first I dont see anything but when she points again, I notice it. Tracker jackers. Fear shoots through me but I keep still. They are one of the most deadly creatures to ever be created by the Capitol. If I get anywhere near them they will begin stinging me and enough stings from Tracker Jackers could kill you. But what if she didnt mean for me to be afraid of it? What if I could find a way to drop them on the careers? Then when they scatter I can get down and find Peeta. I am gonna have to do it whilst they are asleep though and very quickly. I could use the knife I got from the District 2 girl.

I climb up to the nest and Stand on the branch underneath it. It's small but its steady enough to hold someone as small as me. I look up at Rue to ask if this is what she meant but she's gone. So I begin. I start sawing through the branch. I feel a sharp pain in my knee. One of the tracker jackers has found me. When the knife is through I push the nest away from me and towards the careers. It bursts in the floor and tracker jackers swarm the air.

I feel a second sting on my cheek and a third on my neck. Their venom almost instantly makes me woozy. I cling to the tree and pull the stingers out of my skin.

Looking down I see some of the careers still trying to fight the tracker jackers. Some of them have run towards the lake but Glimmer from district 1 wasn't able to get away and appears to be going completely mad. She is shrieking and trying to kill the tracker jackers by hitting them with the bow. My bow, the one that was meant for me.

I watch glimmer fall, then twitch for a minute and finally go still. I take this as an opportunity to climb down to the floor.

PEETAS POV

I didn't see katniss' face in the sky last night which I am glad about. Atleast she is still alive.

What if she's hurt? I need to find her. I wonder what happened with the careers they can't possibly still be there. Knowing Katniss though she would have found a way to get away from them which means she could be on her way to find me right now, if she isnt too injured.

Suddenly I hear rustling from the tree right behind me. I look up from where I'm led on the floor. I managed to pull myself over to a large enough bush on the outskirts of the woods and I've been here for about 5 hours now not being able to move. There are big brown eyes coming from the tree and when I find them they dissapear. "Who's there?" I ask. There's a little bit more rustling an the girl from district 11 falls out the tree and lands on her feet right infront of me. Clearly she isnt scared of me.

"Peeta?" She asks.

"How do you know my name?" I ask her. "And what do you want?" I see what Katniss meant when she said she reminds her of Prim.

"From the training centre." She laughs, coming closer. "They had polls going on remember? All our names where up on the board. I saw you fighting Cato. I came to help."

"Would you please?" I ask her nicely. The pain is becoming too much now.

I don't know what she does but within 10 minutes I am able to Stand up and walk around without help. "Wow Thank you what did you do?" I jiggle my leg round.

"I just did a quick remedy that I learn back home. It wont last long. The full thing takes a couple hours but Katniss needs your help she might be in trouble."

"What why?" I ask. I had a feeling that she was in trouble but I didnt listen to it.

Rue backs off slightly as if she did something wrong. "Dont shout at me but I gave her the idea of dropping some tracker Jackers on the careers and it worked but she also got stung and when she got down she started running off but she went back for the bow and then passed out and I cant move her, the careers are setting off back soon, they arent far from here. I need your help moving her somewhere safe so I can treat her wounds.

"Ok come on" we set off running into the forest.

When we get to the tree, katniss is stumbling around. She must have woken up. Some tracker jackers are still lingering around. Katniss is trying to get the now off glimmer. I can see Cato coming back through the trees.

"Rue climb that tree now" I say pushing her away and she climbs the tree.

I run forward and grab Katniss by the arm. "Come on get out of here!" I can hear the Careers coming back behind us, I need to get her out of here now. Katniss turns around to me but her eyes are distant and she is looking straight through me. "Run!" I push her away from me and off into the forest just when Cato comes through the trees. Now I've got to hold him off.

His face is full of anger and sting makrs. "You! I killed you!" He shouts in my face as I stand there.

"No you injured me." I set him straight.

"It should have killed you."

"Well it didn't." I'm right infront of him now. This time he is not going to win! I see Rue up above me jumping through the trees following after Katniss. Now its just me and Cato... again.

HAYMITCH POV

Not much has happened during the night so I decided to give up on watching the tv. Effie said she would come and get me if something happened. I have had some sleep, only a little bit though because either Katniss or Peeta could die any minute.

I'm sitting in my room at 8 am when Effie runs in looking frantic. It actually makes me want to laugh a little. "Peeta has run into Cato again. Come on." I would watch what is happening using the tv in the sitting room but it is always an hour behind what is actually happening, the one in the mentors room is whats happening right now so I follow Effie to the elevator. "Katniss dropped some Tracker Jackers on the careers under the tree then Peeta went back to save her and Cato showed up and then Katniss and Rue-" Effie starts to explain.

"Rue?" I ask, using my hand to stop her. The Elevator stops on the right floor and we start down the corridor to the Mentors room.

"The girl from district 11 she has allied with them. Anyway, katniss and rue ran off and now Peeta is facing Cato AGAIN!" She now has some tears falling down her eyes. This isnt going to end well. We have to get there quickly.

When we reach the Mentors room I burst through the door with Effie behind me. A few people look at us but at the moment I don't care. I need to get to our station and find out whats happened.

I'm stopped by finnick when I walk in. Annie walks over to Effie and hugs her. "I'm sorry about the boy." Finnick says looking sad. I can feel the tears behind my eyes.

"What do you mean what happened?" I ask. He cant be dead. He's not dead. I refuse. Finnick doesnt know what hes talking about.

"Why don't you see for yourself." Annie says and I push past them both.

I run over to the district 12 station and look at the screens. Both screens have the same picture which means they are together.

I see both katniss and Peeta unconscious next to eachother with rue stood over them. Peeta has blood pouring out of his leg where he was cut before. Cato must have cut him again. Katniss has leaves on her arm, neck and cheek. I don't know what has happened to her. I hope rue is able to help them.

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 **I'm already working on the next chapter :) Thank you for reading :)**


	14. Chapter 14

**14**

(PEETAS POV)

When I wake up the first question I ask myself is: where am I? A couple other questions run through my head like: what happened? Why am I here? Why am I not dead? Where's Katniss? When I turn my head I see her led on the cold muddy floor right next to me. I guess atleast one of my questions is answered. Probably the most important one of all. I lift my arm to lightly touch her face and she doesnt move at all. Infact she doesnt even look asleep, she looks more like shes dead. This obviously makes me jump up as fast as I can. My head feels really funny. It feels like I have mini cogs in my head that are jammed some how. Like the memories where erased. I suddenly go really dizzy obviously from gettin up too fast.

Its not long before the cogs start to work again and The memories from yesterday come flooding back. The tracker jackers, the careers and the fight with Cato. How did I get out of that alive for a second time. Then I remember rue and Katniss running off but thats the last thing I remember. I look around to find I'm not the same place I was last night when I was running.

I turn to the left and Rue walks around a tree with some kind of berries in her Hand. She is placing them in her mouth one by one. "Rue" I say startling her a little. It still feels like its some kind of dream, like I am actually dead and this isnt real at all. My whole body feel numb, like I've fallen off a cliff and this is me moving on to wherever dead people go when they die. I look down to where I was previously led expecting my body to still be there but instead its just Katniss.

"Your awake." She walks over to me and kneels near my leg. She is very grown up for a 12 year old. Very much like Primrose. "I'm sorry about your leg. I know last time I could help but this time it's not so easy, the blade went all the way through and whatever I did wouldn't do it very much good." She says offering me some of her berries. I look down forgetting about my leg. Honestly I havent even felt it. Maybe adrenaline or something.

I take some berries off her but leave a lot for her. "Well is there anything you could do so I would be able to atleast walk?" If I was at home it would be a different matter but I'm in the arena, I need to atleast walk.

"I think there is something." She looks in her bag and takes out a couple of leaves. "These are meant to take away infection. If I use these then your leg won't get worse for the time being maybe we can patch it up, I also found some burn cream in Katniss' bag and I already put it on your leg to see if it would make a difference and atleast heal it a little but it didnt so I applied the rest of it to Katniss' burn and thats completely healed now." I look down to my leg and worry that maybe it will never get any better than this.

Then I look to Katniss. "So what's wrong with her?" I ask worried. She doesnt look very good. Her face is pale and she looks as if she has been knocked out instead of passed out.

Rue's face drops. "She was stung by several Tracker Jackers. The leaves are extracting the venom she should wake in the next couple hours, hopefully we won't have any unwanted visitors by then. Luckily there hasnt been any up to now. I wouldnt have been able to keep all three of us safe."

"Well now you have me. I will try my best to protect both of you if something happens." She smiles at me and Prim flashes through my head. I wish I was back at home with my family. But I know I have to get Katniss home to Prim instead. I cant be selfish right now. I might not ever see Primrose again but atleast I get to spend time with Rue and the thought that Katniss will get to see Prim again is good enough for me.

Me and Rue spend the next 2 and a half hours talking and eating some berries from a nearby bush making sure to save some for Katniss when she wakes up. She sleeps peacefully for what feels like ages. "So is all that true?" Rue asks me. I narrow my eyes in question. "You and Katniss, did she really save your life?"

I nod with a smile. "She saved my entire family. I've loved her since I was 5. She only recently started loving me but Its been amazing. I love her with all my heart and I plan to get her home. Her little sister needs her."

When Katniss wakes up Rue says it's 7 pm but I can't tell. Katniss seems to be able to do that aswell, tell the time from the sky but she tried to teach me once and I still have absolutely no idea.

I dont actually know she is awake until I hear her voice whisper my name. Her eyes are on me when I look up. Her beautiful eyes that I have missed so much these past couple of hours. "Where am I?" She asks. I crawl over to her as best I can and take her face in my hands, kissing her lightly.

"Thank god you're awake, you had me worried for a second there." I mumble and she smiles up at me.

"What happened?" She asks sitting up. Her face twists in discomfort as she pulls off the leaves that are attached to to her neck and hand.

"Tracker jackers and the careers." I throw away to leaves that she is holding and behind me I hear Rue reach for more and begin chewing them. Katniss notices her for the first time but doesnt seem worried or scared or anything, she just smiles at the little girl.

(KATNISS POV)

I knew we would eventually find Rue. Infact it was one of my plans. I wasnt sure how I was going to find her but I know I had to try. Now Peeta has done it for me. I smile up at Peeta, catching sight of his bandaged leg for a second. "What happened to you?" My hand finds his leg and he pulls back for a second in pain.

"Cato... Twice." A laugh comes from his lips even though we both know its not funny.

How the hell did Cato find him a second time? "What happened?" I ask. I realise that whatever happened before I was here is gone from my mind. I must have hit my head hard or something.

He takes my hand and begind to explain. "Well when I left you in that tree with the careers, Cato followed me and cut my leg. Rue helped me. Then we came back for you and Cato showed up again and he cut me again but this time it was worse and the sword went deeper than before, I cant really walk. Rue did what she can but there isnt much we can do about it in here."

I reach out to touch his leg again but lighter this time and he quickly takes my hand away, smiling at me. The pain in his face is obvious. "Is it hurting?" I ask him.

He laughs slightly. "Of course it's hurting but thanks to Rue I should be able to walk soon, hopefully. Its not going to fix my leg but it will be okay to walk on and thats all I really need at the moment." He smiles at me and I smile back.

"Good." We don't say another word I just take him in my arms. I've missed him so much. I thought he was going to die.

"Katniss do you want some berries?" He asks me pulling away.

"Please." I'm starving and so he hands me a big pouch of berries and I start to eat. Within 10 minutes the whole pouch is empty. I look at them both with guilt written across my face having eaten what they had collected for all 3 of us. Rue just laughs at me and says they had a lot before and she can still get more.

"So what are we going to do about the careers?" Rue asks.

"Don't you think Katniss should get some rest first?" Peeta says looking worried. I turn to him. He's the one that look tired. I feel completely fine now. Well rested, Well fed. It's him that looks a mess and I know he feels terrible, he's just not telling me that he does because he never does.

Before I even have a chance to say anything, Rue speaks up. "Peeta you're in worse shape than Katniss is. Maybe you should sleep and I'll talk to katniss about the careers." Rue suggests.

"But-" Peeta starts but I stop him.

"No Peeta she's right you get some sleep." I say. He sighs. He knows I'm always right and I know that he hates it.

"But what if something happens?" He asks, yawning. Obviously thinking about going to sleep.

"Then I'll wake you... Peeta we all know that your tired we can tell just get some sleep, please." I say. Whenever he blinks his eyes stay closed for a while before opening.

He has started sinking down now, going to lie on the floor obviously, just where I was led when I woke up. "What about you?" He asks, obviously he is tired because he already asked me this question.

"I'm not tired." I reply with a laugh.

Then he laughs. "No I mean what are you going to be doing?" As if it was an obvious question.

"I'll be sitting right here next to you." We both smile at eachother and his eyes close.

I'm about to turn away thinging he is going to sleep now but he speaks again. "Ok I'll sleep but only for a little while ok, promise to wake me."

"I promise." He moves his head over to my lap and finds sleep within minutes. Great, now I can talk to Rue about this plan. I have a good idea but I know that Peeta wouldnt like me doing it so its actually wuite good that he has gone to sleep.

I turn to Rue. "So what's our plan?" She beams at me and an image of Prim flashes through my head.

Then her face turns serious, like my mums does when she turns into healer mode as me and Peeta call it. "Well the careers have all the supplies from the cornucopia piled high in a pyramid near the lake-" I stop her.

"Ok so if we destroyed the supplies somehow then they won't have anything to eat and then we would have a better chance of fighting them because they are not used to being hungry." I suggest and she nods.

She smiles again. "Yeh so we just have to figure out a way to destroy all the supplies?" I run my hands through Peetas hair whilst she speaks, making sure that he stays away.

Then it comes to mind, the mines. If somehow I was able to reactivate them then I could find a way to blow the food up so they wouldnt have any. "What about the explosives that they have buried round the platform that we come up in?"

"Yeh when I was round there. It looked like someone had dug something up around the pile of supplies and they have the district 3 tribute with them." Well I guess that helps, now I just have to activate them

For the rest of the day we think up the perfect plan and by sun-down we have covered eveything. I will be the one that destroy the supplies and Peeta will be going with Rue to keep the Careers busy whilst I do so.

When the sun falls, Peeta is still asleep. I wake him up. I'm gonna have to explain this plan to him before tomorrow.

He almost looks angry when he sees that the sky is dark. "Katniss you said you would wake me earlier." He says in that tired voice that I love so much.

I find myself laughing even though he's angry. "I didn't need too, me and rue have just been talking."

He soon lighten up and smiles at me. "Ok well what did you come up with?" He asks and I take a breathe and tell him.

I explain all my plan to him but he doesn't seem happy with it. He sits up. "So your going to the cornucopia to risk your life and I'm suppose to do what. Sit here and wait for you to come back. No way I'm coming with you."

I knew he was going to be like this. "No you go with Rue to keep her safe."

"No I want to go with you." He argues.

"Peeta please, you can't even walk properly, just please go with Rue. Atleast then if your leg gets worse she can help you I can't. I don't know what I'm doing." He knows I'm right but he cant accept it, I can see it all over his face.

When he speaks again, he is sat up straight right next to me. "There's no way you are going through with this plan." His head begins to shake but he's making me angry now.

So I shake my head. "And there's no way you will be able to stop me Peeta."

"Then there is no way you are gonna stop me coming with you." He says back.

For the next 10 minutes we do this back and forth, him saying I cant go unless he goes with me and me telling him that he cant come because he is injured and cant walk properly. That is until he finally shouts at me, bringing tears to my eyes, saying that I can do whatever I want and that he doesnt care anymore before pulling himself up and limping away from us. I didnt even know he could walk yet.

(PEETAS POV)

How can katniss just think that I'm going to sit here and let her go to her death at the cornucopia. Is she stupid or something. I am not sure how far I've walked or how long I've walked for. I just know that I had to get away from her. She hardly ever argues with me like that and when she does its over someothing stupid but this time it was bad, I kept getting more angry and I was shouting at her. Why did I shout at her.

Maybe I should go back and apologise. Before I can even decide wether or not it is a good idea yet, my feet are taking me back the way I came. The sky has got really dark now, must be well into night, she's probably asleep which might be better then I have time to think up a good apology for when she wakes up.

In the small clearing, I see both Katniss and Rue curled up in the small sleeping bag under a tree. I can hear small sobbing, she's crying. I've really hurt her. "Katniss?" I whisper and the sobbing stops. "I'm sorry." I say but she still doesnt say anything,

"Go away Peeta, just leave." She says. We both know she doesnt mean it.

"I'm trying to apologise. Can I please?" I ask and she looks at me, her face is blotchy from the tears as she slides her way out of the sleeping bag slowly as to not wake up Rue.

Eventually she is standing infront of me with tears still in her eyes. "Go on." She mumbles.

"I'm sorry about shouting at you. I didnt mean for the argument to get that heated. I just made a promise to your sister that I would get you home and I plan on sticking to that, this plan could ruin that so I was just thinking about you." I say to her and she looks at me for a second. I prepare for the worst, for the words 'go away' to come out of her mouth or something along them lines but instead she wraps her arms around me and cries. "I love you." I mumble.

Through her tears she speaks. "I love you too. I'm sorry." I give her a quick kiss on the head and take her back to the sleeping bag where she falls asleep inside and I lay away to keep watch as I have already slept a while today.

(KATNISS POV)

 _"Katniss?" Primrose is shouting. I open my eyes to see her jumping up and down on our bed that we share. "Come on its my birthday!" Her face looks young, probably around 9. Back when she wasnt scared. "You promised you would take me to the Bakery." Her body falls onto me with a huge weight and I let out a noise. "If you dont get up I'll keep doing that."_

 _She sounds so cute that I just have to get up when she tells me to. "Ok Little Duck I'm coming." She jumps off me and goes over to mums bed, where mum is lying there staring up at the ceiling. We have just given up on her now. She's been like that for almost a year. Ever since dad died. None of us are over it but its not too hard to get on with life for us._

 _Considering its Prim's second birthday since Dad died, I decide that I have to make it special. Last year we didnt celebrate it becuse it was only 3 weeks after he died so none of us could. "Come on Prim lets go." I say once I'm dressed. I take all the money I have. I cant think of anything more I would like to spend it on._

 _She pretty much skips out the front door and all the way to the Bakery by my side. As soon as we make it into the Town Square, I see the Bakery, its carved sign that says 'Mellark Bakery' and one of the sons outside, I cant remember his name, something that begins with R. I believe he is the middle one. The only one of them I know is Mr Mellark because I used to trade with him with my dad. I remember the oldest boy but cant remember his name at all. We did a few trades with him._

 _Inside, another boy is at the counter. The youngest one, he's in my class at school. Sometimes I catch him staring at me. The one that threw me the bread that saved mine and my families lives. "How can I help you?" He asks kindly once we get to the counter and Prim starts looking at the cookies._

 _"Its my birthday!" She beams at him. "I'm 9!" He smiles down at her._

 _I find myself laughing at the whole thing. She gets so excited when its her birthday. She is probably the only one though. No-one here really gets excited until its their 19th birthday and they are done with the reaping. I've only had one reaping so far but I'm already looking forward to when I'm 19 or should I say when Prim is 19._

 _"Sorry, she gets excited. What would you reccomend for her birthday?" I ask the youngest Mellark._

 _"I'm Peeta by the way." He says and so I introduce myself. "I know, we have class together at school." I nod then he looks at Prim. "Well, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. In a week it will be my birthday too. And you know what us Mellarks do for our birthday?" Prim shakes her head, really interested. "We get a cookie specially made for us. Would you like that?" I'm about to say no but Prim starts cheering. Thank god there is no-one else in here. "Well you're in luck, we have a new batch of cookies." He dissapears for a second and comes back with a fresh cookie and some pink icing._

 _"You dont have to do this." I say but he shakes his head and pushes it away._

 _I pull Prim up onto a chair that I move over and she watches Peeta Mellark draw the letter P on the top of the cookie in elegant writing. It looks so beautiful. Then he draws a small flower on the right of the P. It looks so good. I have to stop Prim from eating it right there. "Its on me because its her birthday." He says. "I'm not taking no for an answer." I smile at him in thanks. "I'm sorry about your dad anyway." He says as he puts the small cookie into a bag._

 _"Thank you." I mumble._

 _"I hope you are all coping and if not I'm here to talk." He says and I smile back, keeping my eyes on him._

 _I decide maybe now is the time to thank him. "We wouldnt have coped very well if it wherent for you." He looks confused. "Thank you so much for the bread. It saved my entire family."_

 _"It was only a little bit of bread?" He asks with a small laugh._

 _"Yeh but the next day I was gonna thank you but then I saw a dandelion and thought of dad and how he used to go into the woods to feed us so I did the same. So thank you." I smile again, neither of us have looked away from the other._

 _"Always here to help." He smiles again and I nod in thanks. "I'll see you around Katniss Everdeen."_

 _"You too Peeta Mellark." We both laugh and I leave._

When I wake up the sky is bright and my memory is still going round in my head, like I was reliving it in reality instead of just in a dream. Peeta is at my side asleep, the sunlight reflecting off his blonde hair. He looks so peaceful. Me and him have really come a long way to say we where once them 2 misunderstood kids in the Bakery on Prim's 9th birthday. I reach up and kiss him lightly on the lips and his eyes open.

"Hey beautiful." He says, his eyes focusing on the sunlight. He pulls me closer towards him, wrapping his arms around me and making a noise that I love so much which shows he is comfortable and happy.

"Good morning." He pulls away and smiles at me. "I had a really good dream last night about the first time me and you talked."

He laughs slightly. "You mean when the bakery went up in flames? How is that a good dream?"

Now its my turn to laugh. "No, Prim's 9th birthday not long after my dad died. You gave her a free cookie that had the letter 'P' on." He nods.

"I remember now. When I was almost 13 and looked really stupid. I was so scared to talk to you that day. I could feel my legs shaking and I was trying so hard to hide them." He laughs.

"Well atleast you dont have to be scared of talking to me again." We smile at eachother and he helps me up off the floor.

After everyone is set to go, we set off for the sight of the first fire which will be near the tree where I hid the other night when I first saw Rue, just so she can remember where it is. Well more Peeta than her, I know for a fact that he isnt very good with directions, never mind in the woods and plus a place he has never been before. The tree that I first saw Rue, Peeta didnt spend much time there, he just ran through. I go through the plan once again with them both as they listen.

By early afternoon we have all the fires set up. We decide to meet up again afterwards at the sight where me and Peeta recovered yesterday.

I shove my hand inside my bag and pull out my sleeping bag. "Here I want you both to take my sleeping bag you can both fit in it. It might be a squeeze but not impossible." I say shoving the bag towards Peeta. At first he looks worried about me but eventually he takes it.

"What about you?" He asks me.

"I'll be fine I'll pick one up at the cornucopia." He turns to rue and slides the sleeping bag into her backpack.

At the last minute rue decides to teach me her mockingjay call. The one that indicates the days work is done. "It might not work. But if you hear the Mockingjays singing it, you'll know we're ok, but we can't get back straight away."

"Are there many mockingjays here?" I ask. I dont remember actually seeing any.

She laughs slightly and starts motioning around her towards the trees and up in the sky. "Haven't you seen them? They've got nests everywhere?" She says.

"Ok then if all goes according to plan I'll see you for dinner." I say.

Unexpectedly Rue throws her arms around me. I only hesitate a moment before I hug her back. I feel the tears in my eyes as I picture Prim at home, watching, waiting for me to come home but knowing that it might not actually happen now that I have met Rue. I will lay down my life in a heart beat for either of the two amazing people that stand by my side through this.

She pulls away and looks up at me. "You be careful." She says to me.

"You too." I pull away from her and turn to Peeta. He has a few tears running down his cheeks. "Hey, hey it's ok I'll be back soon." I say taking his face in my hands.

He smiles at me and nods. "I know of course you will be ok, I'm just worried and I will be until your safe in my arms." He pulls me towards him.

I wrap my arms around his middle and his go around my Shoulders with his hands in my hair. I pull away from him and press my lips to his.

It takes of salt water from his tears but I don't care. This could very well be the last time I see him. Even I know that this is a very angerous plan and couldnt go very well. I'm willingly putting myself infront of all the Careers if this doesnt work.

I give them both one more hug and set off towards the cornucopia. The tears come freely. I turn around and see them both standing there watching me. Peeta is still crying but Rue smiles to me. Lets hope all this goes well.

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 **Hope you liked it :) Its been a while but I've been working on something new.**


	15. Chapter 15

**15.**

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(KATNISS POV)

Last night I ended up having to sleep in a bush near the cornucopia because I couldn't hear anything and I was too weak to walk around. My plan worked atleast. All the food is gone and the Careers will follow soon, meaning we wont have to fear them for very long. I wonder how long they will last without their food and weapons.

This morning I went back to the place where me and Peeta healed but neither Rue or Peeta where there. I stayed there for a while but decided that they weren't going to come back and I set off for the sight of the third fire. ts quite far to walk but its definitely worth it for them too. As I go I start to worry. They didnt stick to the plan or tell me through the Mockingjays that everything was fine. Which can only mean that something it wrong. What if the Careers found them first?

When I make it there, the fire is untouched which means they haven't been here yet. Maybe they got to the second sight when they heard the stuff blow up. It's a relief to be doing something after sitting down all morning. I creep silently through the shadows. There doesn't seem to be any signs of a struggle. I've stopped for just a moment when I hear it. Rues four note tune. The mockingjays copy it nearby and I follow them. Finally, they must be okay if they are signalling the Mockingjays. Right?

I swallow and whistle back soflty. The Mockingjays copy it to me. The whistle is cut off by a child's scream. There's no one in the arena capable of making that scream except Rue. Before I know it I'm running. There's another high pitched scream. This time it's my name. "Katniss! Katniss!"

"Rue!" I shout back. A thought crosses my mind, she was with Peeta, why is she shouting me? Surely he would be more help than I could be? What would have happened to him? Unless she is shouting because something has happened to him. I leave that where it is and run faster. "Rue I'm coming!"

When I break into the clearing. She's on the ground, entangled in a net. She has enough time to reach for me and say my name when the spear enters her body.

The boy from district 1 dies before he can pull out the spear. My arrow drives deeply into the side of his neck. "Are there any more!" I shout in Rue's direction, looking around. She has to say no several times before I hear her. I spin at the pain in her voice.

Rue has rolled to her side, her body curved around the spear. I shove away the boy and pull out my knife. I cut away the net and she curls towards me. I put my arms around her, trying not to believe it, I must still be passed out from the explosion.

She smiles slightly at the sight of my face and opens her mouthg. "You blew up the food?" She whispers.

"Every last bit." I say tears spilling over my face.

A few tears of mine drop onto her face and I wipe them away, just like I do with Prim when she cries. "You have to win." Rue says. Prim's face enters my mind. I have to see her again.

"I'm going to. Going to win for both of us now." I promise. I hear the cannon sound an look up. Must have been the boy from 1.

Her eyes close and she takes my hand, the blood from hers wiping off onto my own. "Don't go." She says with a small smile.

"Course not. Staying right here" I say. And then she doesnt speak again.

I hold her until she dies and even a few minutes after she has died. The tears still haven't stopped an I let myself forget about Rue for a moment to think about Peeta. Where is he. As if he knew he was thinking about him I hear him. "RUE!" He comes flying through the trees.

Anger boils up inside me as I see his face, through my tears. He looks around for a minute before his eyes lock on mine and he stiffens. The tears fall from his eyes straight away. I lay Rues head back onto the floor gently and stand up. "You" Why where you not here?" I shout walking over to him. He doesnt back of or anything like he normally does when I argue with him, he just stands there.

"Katniss-" He starts, looking towards the floor, pure Guilt obvious in his face.

"No! I dont want to hear it! If you where hear, you could have helped her, maybe killed him! You could have stopped this!" He looks hurt but the words just fell from my mouth. "Now she's dead!"

He takes me in his arms but I can feel my hands moving and hitting him in the chest. Eventually he lets go of me and I pull away, looking at him. "Katniss I'm sorry you're right I should have been here."

"Just go..." I whisper turning away from him.

"Katniss, please." I can hear the hurt in his voice and I can feel the touch of his hand on my arm, trying to make me see reason but I just cant stand to look at him right now.

When he hasnt left I say, "No go please Peeta just go." He doesn't say anything else just walks away. Thats when my legs give up and I fall to the floor, crying.

(HAYMITCH POV)

On the screen, katniss crawls up into a ball, after saying goodbye to Peeta about half an hour ago. She hasn't stopped crying. The hovercraft came to pick up Rue and she didn't even look up.

I look towards Effie who is crying her eyes out. I find a couple tears fall from my eyes as I turn towards the screen again. Almost instantly I'm interrupted by chaff from district 11. "Haymitch, that girl is brave, very brave and I think we should send her something."

I quickly wipe my face to rid it of the tears but I sense that it hasnt worked. "What do you have in mind Chaff?" I ask him regardless of the fact that tears are still coming from my eyes.

He takes a minute. "I dont know yet." He says. Suddenly a thought enters my mind about how I'm going to save them both. A smile appears on my face and I pull myself up, startling Effie.

I quickly mumble to Chaff, "Ok we will talk about it later right now I need to get a drink and talk to a certain game maker." He nods and walks away as I quickly leave the room. Effie knows how to use the equipment I'm sure she can let me know if something happens.

My feet take my to Seneca Cranes office, its not long before I'm there and walking straight in. "Crane I need to talk to you now." I say slamming down on the table. He doesnt seem bothered by the fact that I just barged in. Just watches the screen infront of him as it shows the games. I can hear the sound of Peeta and Katniss crying already. When he sees my face he lowers the volume and looks at me.

"Ahhh Haymitch, how may I help you?" He asks turning the screen away from him and sitting up straighter in his seat to see me better.

I blurt out my idea. I dont have a clue wether its going to work but I know I'll feel bad if I dont atleast try to do this. "The rules, if you change the rules then it might make these games interesting." I say to him and he kind of sits there for a minute taking it in.

"And what rules are you talking about?" He asks, intrigued.

"Look there are uprisings out there. I know you know how to deal with anger you have done it before." I'm sat in one of the chairs infront of his desk now, with my hands lightly on the wood.

He sits back as I sit forward. "So?" He looks slightly bored now. Like I'm wasting his time.

"Just give them to route for to take their minds off the uprising." I suggest. He still looks bored and has absolutely no idea what the hell I am talking about.

He takes a very long breathe and then narrows his eyes. "Like what?"

"Young love." I say standing up again smiling. He smiles too. It seems I've won him over.

"Not a bad idea Haymitch" He says thinking it over, glancing quickly back over at his little tv screen that is playing the games. "But they don't seem really in love at the moment."

I find myself laughing as he looks at me. "Trust me they will, she can't stay away from him for too long." I have never known a time when them two havent been apart for more than a day.

He nods slightly and motions for the Peacekeeper by the door to open it for me. "Ok I'll see what I can do." I smile and walk out the door. Now to find Effie.

When I get back to the mentors room. Effie is gone. "Where Effie" I ask Chaff. I swear I left her at our station.

"She went back to floor 12 she was broken Haymitch" He says with sorrow in his eyes.

"Ok thanks" I slap him on the back an run for the elevator.

Effie is sitting in one of the chairs in the tv room with a handkerchief in her hand when I get up to our floor. She turns to me and she has make up running down her face. I can imagine how much she has been crying now.

As she sees me she pulls herself up, moving to walk away but I stop her. "Haymitch just leave me alone." She says pulling away from my outstretched hand.

I keep hold of her anyway and smile slightly. A smile that hasnt really left my face since I lefrt Crane's office. "Wait I need to tell you something." The way I say 'something' shows that we need to talk in private.

"Ok."She mumbles, using her hankerchief to try and wipe some of her stray make up off but it doesnts seem to be working. I take her arm and pull her along.

"Shall we go to the roof?" I ask, not even waiting for an answer as I pull her down the hallway and towards the stairs. I take her to the roof and she sits down on the bench with me sitting next to her.

I take a breathe before I say, "I found a way to get both katniss and Peeta out together." Her head spins so fast I'm surprised she didnt get whiplash. Her eyes say 'what?' so I explain more. "I talked to Seneca Crane and he is going to try and change the rules. They will both be able to go home together."

"Oh Haymitch." Surprisingly she hugs me. I hesitate. "That's amazing!" She let's go before I have to hug her back.

(PEETAS POV)

Maybe she's right. This is all my fault. I killed Rue. Well atleast I could have stopped it. It was Marvel's fault but I know I would have been able to stop it. I shouldnt have left her there to get berries, I should have taken her with me or stayed with her and waited for Katniss to come back. There are so many things that I could have done to stop it from happening.

I've been walking for about an hour now and the pain in my leg becomes too much to bare and I fall to the ground. Maybe I should just let myself die right here. No one wants me anymore. I'm about to crawl to a bush when Claudius Templesmiths voice booms out.

"Hello, to the remaining tributes. There has been a slight rule change. Two tributes will be crowned victors if both originate from the same district. This will be the only announcement." I feel my head spin as one thought runs through my head, Katniss. I need to get to her. My thoughts are cut off by a scream.

"PEETA!" It's Katniss. She sounds like she isnt that far away, I just need to find her.

"Katniss! Where are you!?" I pull myself back up to my feet and walk back to where I left her.

"Peeta!" She's closer.

"Katniss I'm here!"

Pain shoots through my leg and I'm brought to my knees again. When I hit the floor I automatically try to get up again. My leg won't allow me. I stay down. My head starts to feel fuzzy and the world goes black. The Last thing I remember is Katniss calling my name again.

(KATNISS POV)

"PEETA!" I scream standing up.

A few seconds later he calls back. "Katniss! Where are you!?"

I run towards his voice at full speed. We can win together. This has never happened before. I get to keep my boy with the bread.

"Peeta!" I shout again.

"Katniss!" He's closer but quieter.

I hear a shout in pain. It sounded like Peeta. He's hurt.

"Peeta!" I scream even louder. What if the Careers have found him! I could still lose him.

My feet stop and I wait a few minutes but he doesn't reply. Then my feet move again and I pass him, I can see him passed out under a tree. "Peeta!"

My body falls next to him. He's definitely alive so if the careers did attack him then they must have heard me screaming and run off but they must still be somewhere near here, I need to get him out of here. There's a bush not far. I can see it. If I can get him to it then I can hide him until he wakes up.

I roll him onto his front. "Peeta, please wake up." I whisper because they might still be near here. He stirs but doesn't wake. "Peeta?" I kiss him hoping it will work. I feel the tears coming. I can not lose him now, not after we just got that announcement.

"Katniss?" He mumbles. His eyes open slowly.

"Yeh it's me." I say taking his face in my hands. "We need to get you out of here" I help him up and start walking towards a stream.

When we make it there Peeta passes out right infront of me. I kneel down by him. It's dark now. Maybe I can just put him in a nearby bush and wait for the morning and see where to go from there. A silver parachute drops down infront of me and Peeta.

I reach over him and pick it up. It has bread inside if it. From spending all that time in the bakery I can tell that it is bread from district 11. I put it on Peetas chest and drag him over to a bush. It seems big enough to keep us both in. I push him into it and climb in myself. I take the bread off his chest and eat half of it. Saving the rest for him.

Assessing Peeta's wound I see that it has got so much worse since Rue helped him with it and so I ease Peetas pants off him to look at it properly. Rue's bandage is there but its not just red from the blood it black. His blood is turning black. I dont know what that means but after living with My Mother all my life I know its definitely not good.

I pull the bandage off slowly so it doesn't hurt him. It's horrible. It's swelled about 5 times more than when rue sorted it out. There is blood running out of it and pus. All I want to do is run away and hide in the woods like I would when My Mum brought home injured people. I can't. I have to do this. For him, my boy with the bread.

His eyes open suddenly when I pull the last part of the bandage of his leg. He screams loudly before I clamp my hand over his mouth. "Peeta it's ok it's just me." He doesnt relax though.

When he finally calms down I pull my hand away from his face. "Katniss what happened?" He asks, scrunching his hands up in pain as I mess with him wound so I can figure out what to do.

"You fainted." I say and pull out my water bottle to give him some along with the bread I had left over.

"Where did you get this bread?" I would have though that he of all people would know that considering I knew it and I have spent less time in the Bakery than he has.

"From Haymitch, it's from district 11." I say, pulling out Rues first aid kit. Hopefully there is something in here that I can use to treat his leg.

A proud look over takes his face as he looks at me. "How did you know that?" His face lights up as much as it can in this situation.

"Well when you spend enough time around the famous Mellarks, you pick up a few things." I say winking at him. He laughs slightly and pulls me down to kiss him which I do.

I pull out the burn cream and use it on his chest where there is still a faint mark from the fire. He sighs in relief. I also use some on the wound hoping it will help. I pull out some of rues leaves to draw out infection. It looks better. I notice how hot his skin is. He must be getting a fever. I dig around in the first aid kit and find some pills to reduce body temperature, almost forcing him to take them.

After he has had them and a little bit of food he smiles. "Thanks I'm a lot better now really can I sleep now?" He must be knackered. I doubt he has slept much since I saw him last.

"Soon, I just need to wrap up your leg an put your pants back on." He looks down as if realising for the first time that his pants aren't on. He laughs.

He lies back again and asks, "When did you take them off?"

"When you where sleeping." I laugh at him slightly. "Its not like I havent seen you with no pants on before, calm down." I say and then remember that I'm actually on national television and I just said that and I burst out laughing.

He's laughing too. "We are both going to pay for that off your Mother when we get home." We both have one more laugh and then I get his leg finished up and let him sleep whilst I keep watch.

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 **~S~**


	16. Chapter 16

**16.**

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The next day, I'm knackered. I've been awake all day watching over our little hiding place. We will have to find somewhere new and somewhere safe. Somewhere there is no chance than someone can just walk in and kill us in our sleep. We can't stay in this bush. I dont know where we are going to go as I cant exactly get Peeta into a tree. All night I've been trying to stop the tears in fear that someone could find us but nothing I have tried has happened. All I want to do is go home and see my sister.

A few more tears fall from my eyes as I hear a voice beside me. "Good morning." I turn a bit too quickly towards him as he sits up and kisses me on the cheek, squeezing my hand slightly like he always has to let me know that he is here for me. The gesture makes me want to cry even more because I might have lost Rue but what if I lose him. I can lose anyone but I cant lose him.

I quickly try and think of something else before I do cry more. "Good morning how are you feeling?" I ask him, keeping my eyes away from his.

"I'm better than yesterday." I can tell by the sound in his voice that he is thinking about Rue. I bet he feels so guilty about it. I dont think any amount of me talking to him about it, will stop him from feeling like that.

"I know." I say and I'm not sure wether its because I know that he is better which he isnt really or if its because I know he would have done better with Rue, because Rue could have helped him, I dont have any idea what I'm doing. Only what I've seen my mother do and for all I know I could be doing it wrong and killing him faster. I pull myself up, pushing the thoughts from my mind. "Come on we are going to have to find somewhere new to hide if I'm able to get you better." I say sticking my head out the bush to see if anyone is around. When I see that the coast is clear I step out.

Peeta pokes his hand out the bush and I take hold of it and pull as much as I can. Even with years of hunting I still can't get him up fully. He has to pull himself the rest of the way up. "So where are you planning on going for a better hiding place?" He asks once he is on his feet. Well...foot.

I quickly think of the layout of the arena. Trees are out. We cant stay in bushes... What about a cave? That could work. The best place to find Caves is where there are rocks. The stream! The water could help to clean him up aswell. "I don't know I was thinking the stream?" I say pulling his arm around my shoulders to steady him.

"The stream! That's a stupid idea. I went to the stream and that's where Cato found me and cut me the first time." He says a little angry.

"Well it's our best bet. It's rocky maybe there's a good cave and if not then either you learn to not be afraid of heights or we brave the grass that thresh lives in?" I say also a little angry.

"I think I'd rather take the grass." He says smiling.

His smile makes me lighten up a bit, like it always has and I pull him along. I'm the one who can walk best so we will go my way. "Well I wouldn't so let's go to the stream." We set off in the direction of the stream.

Peeta doesn't talk to me anymore about where we are hiding. He just lets me pull him along without another word on the subject. Getting through what is left of the woods is hard. Every single twig or branch or rock on the floor is an obstacle for Peeta and every single time we step over one, he seems to drop a bit more. Eventually we get there though and when I get him to the stream I look up at him to see all the colour leave his face.

"Peeta are you ok?" I ask worried.

"Can we just take a break for a moment?" He asks. I need to take a break anyway. I can't hold his body weight for much longer. He's trying not to put too much weight on me but I can't hold him anymore.

"Of course." I sit him down and push his head between his knees. He takes deep breaths and I survey the area around us. I hope there is a cave nearby. Peeta can't walk much further and I can't carry him. I'm not strong enough.

10 minutes later some of the colour has made it's way back into Peetas face and we are able to carry on. I really want to find a cave before night falls. I only have one pair of night vision glasses and I can't save Peeta and myself.

"Are you ready to carry on?" I ask pushing some of the hair away from Peeta's forehead. He's getting hotter if I don't get him in a cave soon it could get worse. The sun is too hot to be outside today.

"Yeh I think." He says standing up again, with my help.

"Peeta your fever is getting worse. Your going to need more tablets soon." I say to him as we walk.

"Ok." We carry on down stream.

I set my sights on a cavelike structure about twenty metres downstream. I half guide, half carry him up to the cave. I'd like to look for a different place to hide him but he's getting worse and this is my best shot. Maybe tomorrow or the day after we can move again but for tonight he's gonna have to stay here wether he thinks its a good idea or not.

I cover the floor of the cave with a layer of pine needles, unroll my sleeping bag, and tuck him into it and I get a couple of pills and water into him when he isn't paying attention, but he refuses to eat any of the food. At the mouth of the cave, I use some vines to try and cover it and conceal the cave within but it doesnt go well and I end up tearing it down in fustration.

I'm about to try again when he says my name. The sound of his voice makes me want to cry. He sounds so weak. "Katniss." He says I go over to him and brush the hair back from his eyes. "Thanks for finding me."

I find myself laughing slightly at the fact that he would think I wouldnt find him. "You would have found me if you could." And its true he would have done. Infact he was trying to until he passed out.

Suddenly his eyes start to close and I am still trying to fight the tears that threaten to fall at the sight of how weak this once strong young man used to be. "Yeh look if I don't make it back." He says.

"Don't talk like that I didn't drain all that pus out of your leg for nothing." I say. Sometimes I need to know when to not say certain things. He doesnt need to hear about pus right now.

"I know. But just in case I don't." He tries to continue, his eyes fully closed now.

"No Peeta I don't want to discuss it." I say placing my fingers to his lips to quiet him.

"But I." He insists. His eyes open now.

I stop him with a kiss. A kiss that tastes of my tears and is full of so much worry that I didnt know I had it in me. "Your not going to die. I forbid it. Alright"

"Alright." He whispers.

I step outside into the cold night air. Just in time to see a parachute drop down infront of me. I open it to find a pot of broth and a note.

'Sweetheart, I'm sorry about Rue, I'm doing all I can to help you I promise' -Haymitch.

I smile at the note. Maybe we can both get out of this. I walk back to the cave with the broth. Pushing the note into my pocket.

"Peeta?" I say walking into the cave.

He's asleep. I walk over to him and stroke my hand down the side of his face. It's getting hotter. He wakes up to my touch and smiles, with his eyes partly closed.

"Hey." He says reaching up to touch my face.

"Look what Haymitch sent you." He tries to look at it but can't. "It's broth."

He reaches out to take the pot but I pull toward myself. "No it's ok I'll do it." I feed him the first mouth full.

"It's good." he says closing his eyes.

"Yeh well you fed me once" I say thinking about the bread. His eyes open again.

"I think about that all the time" he says. "How I tossed you that bread. I should have gone to you." He looks upset.

"Peeta"

"I should have just gone out in the rain an handed it to you" he says

I put down the broth and reach for his face. "Shhhh it's ok it doesn't matter now"

"But we would have had longer together" he says with tears in his eyes.

"it doesn't matter I got all the time I wanted with my boy with the bread" I smile and he smiles back.

"Do you feel hot" I say feeling his head.

"Look if I don't make it, will you tell me family I love them" I have tears in my eyes now.

"Peeta-"

"No just listen please. If I die I want you to tell everyone back home that they made my life great"

"Peeta stop it"

"No katniss-" he starts.

"Yes!" I shout. "Peeta just stop it. You are not going to die. If you die then I will not be telling your family that you love them because I won't get back. I am not going back without you" I now have tears rolling down my cheeks an I'm shaking a lot.

"There's no way I'm going to let you die" he says

"Well how can you stop me if you already dead Peeta" I say.

He stops for a minute and just looks at me. "Ok fine I'm sorry I won't talk about it anymore"

"Good" I feed him the rest of the broth and lie down next to him. I decide that we both need sleep tonight so I can't keep watch.

I feel Peetas breath even out and know he is asleep. I close my eyes and sleep quickly follows.

(PEETAS POV)

I'm woken half way through the night by a scream. I automatically know that it is katniss and that I have to shut her up.

"Katniss!" I half shout, half whisper.

She pulls away from me and retreats to sitting in a corner. She dreamt about Eric. I know it as soon as I see her eyes. Distant and scary. Atleast the screaming has stopped.

"Katniss it's ok. Eric is back in district 12. Not here. It's ok it's just me Peeta." She looks up and her eyes are going back to normal. Atleast it's easier to get her back now without her hurting me.

"Peeta?" She says crying.

"Yeh it's me" she crawls over to me and sits curled up in my lap. Staying as far away as she can from my leg.

(HAYMITCH POV)

I'm sitting in the screening room falling asleep when I hear mumbling.

I look up tiredly. Katniss is talking in her sleep.

"Eric... Stop... Haymitch ... Please" she's dreaming about Eric. Shit ! This is bad she needs to wake up now. With her post traumatic stress, she's going to go into shock.

Next thing I know she is screaming. Effie comes running in 2 seconds later in a night gown. She doesn't have a wig on. Her natural blonde hair is flowing down her shoulders. She looks so beautiful. I almost drop my drink. She isn't even meant to be here. She was meant to go home at night.

"What's going on" she half shouts at me. I blink a few times then answer.

"Katniss had a bad dream. Peeta will sort her out."

She comes and stands next to me. I can't keep my eyes off her. Why am I thinking these things. This is Effie I shouldn't like Effie. Infact I hate Effie she is from the Capitol. I tear my eyes away from her and look at the screen. Peeta has Katniss in his lap and is telling her that everything is ok. She will be ok eventually. Atleast she comes back faster now that's good.

Effie sighs happily and starts walking away.

"Effie" she turns around. "What are you even doing here?" I ask her.

"I didn't want to leave Incase something happens" she says looking down.

"But you have never stayed before"

"I know Haymitch and I know you have never seen my like this but honestly I don't care if something happened to them kids I wouldn't forgive myself. I'm the one that called prim and Peeta at the reaping. This is all my fault. I will always feel guilty about it" she is infront of me now. I look down at her and notice the tears. I pull her into my arms.

I just let her soak my shirt with tears. It's fine I don't care. She pulls away not longer after. What she does next surprises us both. She puts her hands on either side of my face and kisses me. I drop my drink and it smashes on the floor loudly.

* * *

~S~


End file.
